AI Vampire.
We all know an AI vampire, and it might even be you. The AI Vampire works late into the night emboldened and empowered by the dramatic uptick in productivity they can achieve when using AI. It's not all great news, as AI Vampiring can leave us fatigued after those midnight screen-time hours. AI Vampires might actually just be creating AI slop or volumes and volumes of AI reports ready to fire off to team members for action (or rather, for them to paste into their own AI for summarisation). Or even just resetting the baseline of what's expected at work, fuelled in part by unhealthy work-life balance. The phrase was possibly coined by veteran engineer Steve Yegge in 2026, named after the Energy Vampire in What We Do In The Shadows, who links it to burnout especially amongst software engineers.
In the wild
“I've been watching the effect the AI Vampire is having on people around me and I'm growing concerned.”
Seen here: Steve Yegge, Medium, 2026
For AI users
Beware, it might feel great to burn the midnight oil building like never before, but could also be terrible for your health and work-life balance longer term. Getting addicted to AI technology is a real risk as not only is the UX so very addictive but using AI can boost our neurotransmitters like dopamine making us feel good in the moment too with longer term downsides.
For business leaders
AI might be driving team members (and you!) to working in ways and at times that might not be sustainable longer term. Look after your team's wellbeing whilst acknowledging it might not be your company's work that they're up AI Vampiring at. AI side hustles are on the up.