Last month, after spending three hours tweaking a draft to satisfy nearly 20 rounds of automated feedback, Hanoi communications specialist Minh Phuong, 26, stared at another cold notification: “Article unsatisfactory. Further edits required.” A year earlier, she had been thrilled by AI’s potential to streamline editing and spark new ideas. She had spent weeks creating…
If you’re one of the early AI adopters, maybe your brain is totally fried. Take Francesco Bonacci, a software engineer and founder of Cua AI, who warned of “vibe coding paralysis” last month. In an X post, he described AI’s ability to complete incredible taskloads, leaving workers time to generate new ideas they can then…
“Brain fry” is a new workplace phenomenon linked to heavy AI use, defined as mental fatigue caused by excessive interaction with or oversight of AI tools. About 14% of AI-using workers report experiencing it, with symptoms including mental fog, headaches, and slower decision-making. Researchers say the risk rises when workers juggle multiple AI tools or…
