This Ai thing will end critical thinking some day just like text messaging ended quality letter writing.
Yes, of course, and the printing press put an end to the “quality” medieval copyists, in the same way that the computer and word processors put an end to the “quality” typewriters.
I think this is another negative side of using Ai. It encourages laziness in research and writing.
The other way around. You don't use AI much either, do you? What I use it for the most is to learn. That's like saying that the harvesting machine encourages laziness because people no longer harvest by hand. What these innovations do is increase productivity. And in this case exponentially. And it is precisely the increase in productivity that has led humanity to an increase in population and quality of life standards that were unimaginable two centuries ago, when Malthus prophesied the opposite.
It is the same as with the Internet. It has made it much easier to communicate, acquire and transmit information. Not to mention many other things, such as bitcoin or AI itself. But there are lazy people who only use the internet to look for likes on Instagram or TikTok. Or that they use it to plagiarize, instead of doing honest research citing sources.
AI is a tool with a lot of potential. How it is used, honestly and properly or not, depends on the person.