This was an unusually hard post to write, because it flies in the face of everything else going on. I first started noticing a concerning new phenomenon a month ago, just after the new year, where people were overworking due to AI. This week I’m suddenly seeing a bunch of articles about it. I’ve collected a number of data points, and I have a theory. My belief is that this all has a very simple explanation: AI is starting to kill us all, Colin Robinson style. If you’ll recall from What We Do In The Shadows (worth a watch, yo), Colin Robinson was an Energy Vampire. Being in the same room with him would drain people.

Full opinion : AI tools like Opus 4.6 actually do make engineers 10x more productive and are addictive, but the “AI Vampire” effect is causing widespread developer burnout.