Heavy AI users report mental burnout from ‘babysitting’ models

Heavy users of artificial intelligence have reported being overwhelmed by trying to keep up with and on top of the technology designed to make their lives easier.

Too many lines of code to analyse, armies of AI assistants to wrangle and lengthy prompts to draft are among the laments by hard-core AI adopters.

Consultants at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have dubbed the phenomenon “AI brain fry”, a state of mental exhaustion stemming “from the excessive use or supervision of artificial intelligence tools, pushed beyond our cognitive limits.”

The rise of AI agents that tend to computer tasks on demand has put users in the position of managing smart, fast digital workers rather than having to grind through jobs themselves.

“It’s a brand-new kind of cognitive load,” said Ben Wigler, co-founder of the start-up LoveMind AI. “You have to really babysit these models.”