Strange symptoms when abusing AI

In 1930, the eminent British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that within 100 years, technological advances would mean the average worker would need to work no more than 15 hours a week. This year, four years away from 100 years, it is likely that what Keynes predicted will not come true, when the average employee spends 36.7 hours per week at work – a number that has barely changed in the past 30 years.

With the AI ​​wave stronger than ever, Keynes’s prediction is once again mentioned. Systems like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, with the ability to write emails, create reports, and even attend meetings on behalf of people, promise to make employees happier and more productive. According to research by the London School of Economics last year, AI has helped workers save the equivalent of one working day per week. Elon Musk believes that AI will make work “no longer mandatory”. According to TechCrunchthere is a trend of office bosses encouraging and even forcing subordinates to use AI.

However, instead of reducing workload, AI tools are actually causing many people to work longer hours, thereby stressing their minds and reducing efficiency. This month, Harvard Business Review coined the term “AI brain fry” (AI mental fatigue, or “AI brain overload”) – a state of cognitive impairment caused by overuse or neglect of AI tools that exceeds a person’s cognitive abilities. Symptoms include loss of concentration, increased stress, making more mistakes, and the feeling of always not getting enough work done.

Theo Telegraphin fact, the “AI brain fry” phenomenon is something that anyone who spends hours trying to delegate work to artificial intelligence can recognize. AI tools are considered increasingly intelligent in handling tasks, but controlling them to do the right thing still requires a lot of effort.

Some recent studies prove this statement. According to strategy and management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (USA), AI initially helps improve productivity. But if they used four or more tools at the same time, they were less effective and made 39% more serious errors. Similarly, research published last week by data company ActivTrak showed that AI users are less focused and have more interrupted thoughts than those who do not use this technology.

Amazon, one of the technology “giants” that recently fired thousands of employees for AI reasons, also had to convene a meeting last week. Bussiness Insider Citing internal sources, the summons is intended to resolve a series of outages on the cloud platform, partly caused by the misuse of AI tools.

“A popular and convincing notion is that digital technology will help us work more efficiently,” Anna Cox, a research expert on human-computer interaction at University College London, told Telegraph. “But in reality, people expect increased productivity over a given period of time, which leads to you having to work more. Because you’re forced to manage many different tasks, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember what you’ve accomplished during the day.”

Victor Dibia, an AI researcher at Microsoft, said last year that trying to keep up with new breakthroughs caused “AI fatigue,” to the point where he forgot his laptop password. Or on

According to independent digital workplace researcher Elizabeth Marsh, workers are suffering from “emotional exhaustion” due to work overload, and AI is likely to exacerbate this condition. She said that having to monitor and check tools consumes a lot of energy and causes mental fatigue. For example, when AI offers many options, the person controlling them is forced to verify, especially with “seemingly correct” results. Over time, a series of small decisions accumulates into great pressure.

“People simply feel like they can’t cope with the number of requests, the number of applications, how to switch between them, how information flows through different channels,” Marsh said. “There is a vicious cycle between information overload and fear of missing out for people. That is exacerbated by artificial intelligence.”

However, not all AI users suffer from “brain overload”. Last week, an Anthropic employee described a dream way of working: assign an AI agent to perform a task, then go for a jog, come back to check the task’s progress, control the agent, and go for a walk again.

Some experts say that the question now is not whether to use AI or not, but how not to get exhausted when working with AI every day. Besides, if bosses and workplaces are ready to accept new types, employees are still forced to bear the pressure of “watching” AI so that this new technology cannot replace their positions.