AI Vampire

A metaphor for the way AI-assisted work drains human energy without commensurate reward. When workers adopt AI tools that dramatically increase output, but employers absorb most or all of the productivity gain, the worker is left exhausted with nothing to show for it. The term draws on the "energy vampire" archetype: proximity to the source is what depletes you, not direct harm. Common manifestations include compulsive overworking driven by the addictive feedback loop of agentic coding tools, and organisational pressure to sustain AI-boosted output as a new baseline indefinitely.