CEO questions ‘outsourced thinking' in post criticising excessive ChatGPT use, netizens find he plagiarised it

Mint

a day ago

Vihan Pratap Singh, who's LinkedIn account shows he is Founder and CEO of Gurugram-based Blackrose, has come under heavy criticism and trolling online after social media users discovered his post calling out 'outsourced thinking' was plagiarised from another CEO, Greg Isenberg, on X.
Till time of writing, Singh's LinkedIn post, made on June 29 (Sunday), generated over 560 reactions and comments. Netizens found that the post is a 'copy-pasted' version of Isenberg's X post made in December 2024, with only the student's school edited from Stanford to IIT.
Singh has not responded to the many comments on his post about the duplication. This copy will be updated with his statement on response.
The following version was posed by Singh on Sunday: 'Just had a fascinating brunch with a 22-year-old IIT-B CS grad. Sharp guy. Perfect resume. Something felt off though. He kept pausing mid-sentence, searching for words. Not complex words - basic ones. Like his brain was buffering. Finally asked if he was okay. His response floored me.
'Sometimes I forget words now. I'm so used to having ChatGPT complete my thoughts that when it's not there, my brain feels... slower.'
He'd been using AI for everything. Writing, thinking, communication. It had become his external brain. And now his internal one was getting weaker. Made me think about calculators. Remember how teachers said we needed to learn math because 'you won't always have a calculator'? They were wrong about that.
But maybe they were right about something deeper.
We're running the first large-scale experiment on human cognition. What happens when an entire generation outsources their thinking? Don't get me wrong, I'm beyond excited about what AI and AI agents will do for people. But thinking out loud you got to think this guy I met with isn't the only one that's going to be completely dependent on AI.
Have you experienced any cognitive decline since you've started using AI tools?'
The only differences to Isenberg's post was the school change from Stanford to IIT and the audience question at the end. Greg Isenberg is the CEO of holding company Late Checkout, which runs a portfolio of internet companies.
At time of writing, the original post (dated December 18, 2024), has been viewed 6.2 million times.
X user Shobhit Bakliwal pointed to the plagiarism on his account, writing: 'this guy straight up stole the post and added IIT-B CS grad. (sic)' He also linked Isenberg's original post from December in the thread.
Other users had a variety of reactions, one pointed out the irony, stating: 'The guy who wrote an entire post lamenting on people not using their brains, didn't use his own brain either to write an original post. (sic)'
Another joked how using ChatGPT may have prevented the plagiarism being found out, writing: 'This guy would have used Chat GPT for coming up with the post as well.. (sic)'
One user urged increased sensitivity and education on plagiarism in Indian schools, saying, 'The plagiarism epidemic in India is such a shame! Indian colleges must educate on IP ethics. (sic)'
While some blamed the culture of posting on LinkedIn for the problem, adding: 'LinkedIn has a high percentage of stolen content... What was meant to be a network for professionals [whatever that means] is a den of self-glorifying pretenders now. Very high on I-Me-Myself. (sic)'