This is interesting because I don't feel like my directional sense has withered at all because of GPS, but I do think it was important that I develop a sense of how to navigate and use maps before I introduced GPS.

I find this is similar in my experience with AI: I pick up tidbits and tricks from AI when it's doing something I'm familiar with, but if I have it working with a completely novel framework or language it quickly races ahead and I'm essentially steering it blind, which inevitably fails.