Dr. Margaret-Anne Storey, professor of computer science at the University of Victoria, first used the term ‘cognitive debt’ in October 2025 while teaching an entrepreneurship startup course. She had encouraged her students to use AI to move faster, and that worked well: the students were putting products into the hands of users and getting feedback. However, they were struggling with implementing that feedback back into their product.
AI coding creates two kinds of debt. You’re only measuring one · Antonija Bilić Arar · 18 June 2026