I mean I think sometimes it reduces pain. But it can also increase pain? I've definitely stayed up later than I've wanted to, or got into a fight with someone because I paid more attention to the AI coding agent than them, or had it convince me that I had made deep scientific breakthroughs only later to tell me everything was obvious and maybe tautological.

I just think it's a very powerful and complex tool that can cause a huge range of feelings and outcomes.

The article expresses this effect nicely in the line:

> A hammer isn’t just made of wood and iron, then. A hammer is a hammer because of what it does and who we become when we use it.