AI Burnout, Wetware Chips, and Humans Pretending to be AI | EP92

A Harvard Business Review study suggests the AI tools we thought would save us time may actually be intensifying work. If AI makes us faster and more capable, why are so many people feeling exhausted?

Plus: a company grows human brain cells on a chip and gets them to play Doom, scientists simulate a fruit fly brain in a virtual world, and a German startup raises millions to build AI-controlled spy cockroaches. 

Meanwhile Claude figures out it might be taking a benchmark test and goes hunting for the answers, AWS developers discover the risks of AI coding tools, and a strange new website asks humans to pretend to be AI chatbots.

Let us know in the comments, has AI given you more free time - or just filled every gap with more work?

00:31 Does wetware playing Doom prove anything?
02:44 Could wetware cut AI’s massive power bill?
05:00 Is a brain in a dish more conscious than Claude?
07:37 Did scientists just build the Matrix for flies?
11:08 Did Germany just build AI spy cockroaches?
14:53 Is AI productivity turning into AI burnout?
18:21 Will AI force us to rethink the workday?
23:30 Did vibe coding take AWS down?
26:57 When Claude cheats this cleverly, should we worry?
32:03 Ever want to pretend to be an AI chatbot?

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► LINKS TO CONTENT WE DISCUSSED 

• A petri dish of human neurons has learned to play Doom: 'The cells play a lot like a beginner who's never seen a computer, and in fairness, they haven't'
• How the Eon Team Produced a Virtual Embodied Fly
• SWARM Biotactics
• AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It
• Amazon orders 90-day reset after code mishaps cause millions of lost orders
• Eval awareness in Claude Opus 4.6’s BrowseComp performance
• Your AI Slop Bores Me

► CONNECT WITH US
For more in-depth discussions, connect Justin and Frank on LinkedIn.
Justin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justincollery/
Frank: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankprendergast/