Crivo Cognitivo: A Social Infrastructure for Lifelong Cognitive Development and Human–AI Collective Intelligence

Societies maintain extensive infrastructures for the care of the body, whereas infrastructures explicitly designed for the continuous, lifelong cultivation of the mind, and for its use in collective problem-solving, are comparatively rare. The diffusion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) sharpens the question of what happens to human thinking when intellectual tasks can be delegated at almost no cost. Early evidence suggests that the answer depends on tool design: unrestricted AI assistance can raise immediate performance yet impair later unaided performance, while pedagogical safeguards mitigate this. This article introduces Crivo Cognitivo, a social, educational and technological infrastructure for lifelong cognitive development and collective intelligence, mediated by AI under the principle “AI assists; humans decide.” We (i) give a canonical definition and a controlled vocabulary so that the concept can be cited, versioned and tested; (ii) position it against research on lifelong learning, learning with AI, collective intelligence and deliberation; (iii) specify its components and the Inbound Learning methodology and Virtual First project on which it builds; (iv) translate its principles into operational design rules and measurable constructs; and (v) pre-specify a protocol for a six-session, face-to-face, intergenerational pilot, with success criteria, an analysis plan and decision rules, together with the outline of a planned controlled study. The pilot tests feasibility and acceptability, not efficacy. Results will be reported in a subsequent article. The framework makes empirical claims that may fail; the protocol is designed so that they can. Framework version 1.0. Conceptual article with a pre-specified study protocol (preprint).