Why AI Actually Matters: The Subtle Sabotage of Sharpness, And The Race For Restoration (OPINION)
In any competition, whether between individuals or nations, it is rarely dramatic gestures or conflicts that determine victory.
Success often hinges on small, almost imperceptible advantages — a phenomenon easily observed in marathons where the winner may cross the finish line only a second, or even a fraction of a second, ahead of the runner-up. High-speed cameras are employed at such moments to detect the unnoticeable margin that separates the champion from the rest. But if one were to cheat in such a race, it would not be by disabling the cameras or physically attacking an opponent — the most effective way to ensure victory would be to make sure the rival's stamina was unnoticeably dulled.
You must understand, evil, thinks differently than ordinary people.
To subtly weaken an opponent without arousing suspicion, an evil entity might offer them a glass of wine the night before a race — framed as a gesture of friendship — knowing it could disrupt their sleep and leave them groggy or irritable the next morning. Or perhaps give them flowers to wish them luck, so their allergies cause a mild distraction of sneezing and watery eyes (creating a drain on their body's endurance). Organizing an encounter with a child carrying an innocent cold, could sap energy as their immune system prepares for battle. When scaled to entire nations, these kinds of subtle disruptions mirror how COVID-19 could be functioning — not merely as a public health crisis, but as a lingering force that chips away at cognitive sharpness and resilience across demographics.
The COVID-19 pandemic, as the world has now widely recognized, was not merely a respiratory disease. From the early stages of the outbreak, medical professionals and researchers began observing a growing list of neurological and cognitive symptoms among survivors. These effects were not confined to severe cases requiring hospitalization. Even those with mild symptoms or asymptomatic cases have reported persistent "brain fog," memory issues, difficulty concentrating, and chronic fatigue (Graham et al., 2021). Longitudinal studies, such as one published in Nature in 2022, showed measurable declines in brain function and reductions in gray matter among individuals who had contracted COVID-19, regardless of the severity of infection (Douaud et al., 2022).
More recent research from 2024 has confirmed that these cognitive impairments are not short-lived. A study from the University of Oxford found that individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 continue to experience cognitive and psychiatric issues even two to three years after infection (University of Oxford, 2024). Similarly, a human challenge study published in News Medical revealed that unvaccinated volunteers who contracted mild COVID-19 exhibited significant memory and executive function declines lasting up to a year, even in the absence of noticeable symptoms (News Medical, 2024). Another 2024 study from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine found that COVID-19 contributes to long-lasting brain fog and neurological deficits that persist well beyond the acute illness (UNMC, 2024). Taken together, these findings confirm that if one sought to dull the collective sharpness of a nation, a virus that subtly but persistently erodes cognitive capacity would be devastatingly effective.
Perhaps more insidious than cognitive impairments are the widespread disruptions to sleep quality that COVID-19 has produced. Everyone I know is struggling to feel fully rested. Sleep is a cornerstone of human health, directly impacting cognition, memory consolidation, emotional regulation, and physical resilience. Yet following the pandemic, numerous studies have documented sharp increases in insomnia and poor sleep quality. According to a 2022 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 37% of American adults now report getting insufficient sleep — a figure significantly elevated from pre-pandemic levels (CDC, 2022). The National Sleep Foundation's 2025 Sleep in America® Poll revealed that 60% of adults are not regularly obtaining the recommended amount of sleep. Additionally, nearly 40% of adults have trouble falling asleep at least three nights per week, and almost half experience difficulty staying asleep with the same frequency. These findings underscore a widespread issue of inadequate sleep.
The ramifications of this collective cognitive and sleep impairment are profound when viewed through the lens of national competition. A 37% reduction in population sleep is effectively a 37% reduction in national productivity. Whether in the field of artificial intelligence, space exploration, or biotech innovation, a nation's greatest asset is its people — particularly their creative, analytical, and problem-solving capacities. When these capacities are dulled, even slightly, the nation as a whole moves slower, thinks less clearly, and responds less decisively. Imagine a team of elite rowers, each of whom slept poorly the night before an important race. They may still row, but their strokes will lack power and precision, and crucially, they will not realize their sleep was a problem until the race is over. This is the invisible danger of subtle, population-wide cognitive degradation and decline in sleep quality
Adding to this challenge is the fact that nations appear largely unaware of this collective impact. There is little public discourse about the cognitive toll of COVID-19; attention remains focused on its immediate physical effects or on preventing new infections. Yet researchers are warning that long-term neurological impacts could persist for years. A study conducted by the University of Oxford in 2022 found that people who had recovered from COVID-19 were 42% more likely to develop neurological conditions such as memory disorders and dementia within a year following infection (Taquet et al., 2022). The scale of this effect is unprecedented — a silent epidemic following the viral one.
The strategic implications are chilling. If, in a hypothetical scenario, an adversary wanted to quietly sabotage the competitive edge of a rival nation without firing a single bullet, introducing a biologically disruptive agent that almost unnoticeably impaired cognition and disrupted sleep would be a near-perfect method, especially if there was a political controversy about the origin. COVID-19, whether designed or natural, has had such an effect. Nations that fail to recognize and address the data may find themselves falling behind in global contests of innovation, strategy, and power. Moreover, since COVID-19 is a virus that almost everyone has been exposed — directly through infection — the damage is universally distributed. Some populations will recover faster, and others may never fully regain their former sharpness, depending on if they address the neurological aftershocks.
Economically, the cognitive and neurological impacts of COVID-19 are already irrefutable. According to a 2023 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, productivity across major industries declined by 1.2% — a sharp reversal of trends seen in the decade before the pandemic (BLS, 2023). While many factors are at play, economists point to workforce fatigue, increased absenteeism, and the long-term impacts of COVID-related health issues as key contributors. When millions of workers function at 90% of their previous 100% capacity, the cumulative economic loss is staggering. The Brookings Institute estimates long COVID could result in as much as $3.7 trillion in total economic losses in the U.S. alone by 2030 (Bach, 2022).
If a population-wide cognitive impairment is real, even a very subtle impairment, as emerging science suggests, then the competitive landscape between nations has fundamentally shifted. Nations that acknowledge and mitigate these almost-invisible effects, will be positioned to excel, while those that ignore them will quietly lose ground. Addressing this requires a multi-pronged national strategy, including investing in public health campaigns that promote restorative sleep, expanding research for permanent cures, developing cognitive rehabilitation programs that make new treatments immediately available, and exploring technological augmentations — such as AI tools — to assist in productivity while humans recover.
As nations grapple with the lingering cognitive and neurological impacts of COVID-19, artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as a vital tool to restore lost productivity and maintain competitive momentum. AI can serve as an essential "augmentation layer" for human work, helping to offset declines in focus, memory, and efficiency that may now be widespread across the workforce. From AI-powered decision-support tools that reduce cognitive load on leaders, to automation of routine tasks that free workers for higher-value activities, AI can bridge gaps left by a fogged and fatigued population. Moreover, as innovation and adaptability remain critical in a post-pandemic world, AI's capacity to analyze vast datasets, detect patterns, and generate insights faster than human teams can ensure that nations continue to innovate.
Ultimately, in this century’s marathon of nations, it will not be the loudest or the strongest that wins, but the one that sees the fog in its people, and heals it before anyone else.
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2023). Productivity and costs: Fourth quarter and annual averages 2022. U.S. Department of Labor.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Sleep and sleep disorders: Data and statistics. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/data_statistics.html
Husain, M., Luciano, S., & Harrison, P. J. (2022). 6-month neurological and psychiatric outcomes in 236,379 survivors of COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study using electronic health records. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(5), 416–427.
Bach, K. (2022). Long COVID is contributing to a labor shortage and may cost the U.S. economy trillions. Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/research/long-covid-is-contributing-to-a-labor-shortage-and-may-cost-the-u-s-economy-trillions/
Douaud, G., Lee, S., Alfaro-Almagro, F., Arthofer, C., Wang, C., McCarthy, P., ... & Smith, S. M. (2022). SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank. Nature, 604(7907), 697–707. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04569-5
Graham, E. L., Clark, J. R., Orban, Z. S., Lim, P. H., Szymanski, A. L., Taylor, C., ... & Putrino, D. (2021). Persistent neurologic symptoms and cognitive dysfunction in non-hospitalized COVID-19 “long haulers.” Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 8(5), 1073–1085. https://doi.org/10.1002/acn3.51350
News Medical. (2024, September 23). Human challenge study reveals lasting cognitive decline after mild COVID-19. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240923/Human-challenge-study-reveals-lasting-cognitive-decline-after-mild-COVID-19.aspx
University of Miami. (2024, September 18). Research shows severe COVID-19 contributes to long-lasting cognitive impairment. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. https://www.unmc.edu/healthsecurity/transmission/2024/09/18/research-shows-severe-covid-19-contributes-to-long-lasting-cognitive-impairment/
University of Oxford. (2024, August 1). Long-term cognitive and psychiatric effects of COVID-19 revealed in new study.https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-08-01-long-term-cognitive-and-psychiatric-effects-covid-19-revealed-new-study
