Polish researchers studying AI-assisted colonoscopy weren't looking for deskilling. They found it anyway. After endoscopists gained routine access to AI polyp detection, their unassisted adenoma detection rate fell from 28.4% to 22.4% across four centres and nearly 1,500 procedures. The degradation only surfaced when the tool was taken away. With it, performance held steady.
From a completely different domain, the same shape: experienced developers using AI coding tools took 19% longer on real tasks while reporting they'd become 20% faster. The tool hides the loss from the person losing something.
Two findings, two fields, one mechanism.