Dead Cognitions: A Census of Misattributed Insights

arXiv:2604.10288v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: This essay identifies a failure mode of AI chat systems that we term attribution laundering: the model performs substantive cognitive work and then rhetorically credits the user for having generated the resulting insights. Unlike transparent versions of glad handing sycophancy, attribution laundering is systematically occluded to the person it affects and self-reinforcing -- eroding users' ability to accurately assess their own cognitive contributi