Claude Code Just Released a Feature That Genuinely Scares Me (And I Use AI Every Day)

Then Anthropic released this feature — Claude Code Channels — the impact this could have on my life scared me.

In itself, this seems like quite a cool little feature but there is something darker and sinister underneath all of this. I am seeing more and more of this recently and I don’t like the direction it’s going.

They push all the right buttons. It’s easier and easier to have access to your agents. Agents can do more and more with less prompting. Heavy users of AI are showing the same traits and behaviours as addicts.

• Continue use despite negative impact on their life
• Withdrawing from social and hobbies they used to enjoy
• Rationalisation and justification of use — “Just one more feature”!
• Denial — Refusing to admit they have a problem
• Secrecy, lying or deceptive behaviour to hide how much they are using

When did building software become this? What the hell is going on?

The AI Promise

It all starts with the promise of what AI can do for you. The lure and the potential of what AI can bring to your life is extremely hard to resist.

Who doesn’t want more for the same or less effort? It preys directly on human’s greatest weakness — Ease, Comfort and Safety.

AI can make your dreams come true. With a few prompts and a little business acumen you can now build that thing you always wanted to but never had the time and it will finally bring you the rewards you deserve.

Whether that’s recognition, wealth, popularity… it doesn’t matter. AI can help you get there. And fast.

On a hike? No worries, ask you agent to implement SSO.

Out shopping and waiting in line? No worries, ask you agent to implement that new api endpoint.

Out to dinner with my wife and she’s sharing a concern she has with the kids? No worries, add some extra test to make sure your app covers that weird edge case.

When The Boundaries Get Blurred

It’s easy to see this becoming a slippery slope. The same as 1 glass of wine at dinner every night soon becomes 2 and then 3.

There is also a whole bunch of genuine validation you have behind you on this.

“Once I build this app we can have some extra income to help with the kids college funds”

“Once I have built out this feature, then I can release to the wider world and get the recognition I deserve”

“Once I build this internal tool, I will get that promotion at work and we can finally start enjoying financial freedom”

These are all genuine and valid scenarios. Opposed to alcohol addiction which inevitably ends up in a bad please, being addicted to AI agents will ultimately bring rewards. Right?

Where The Promise Doesn’t Meet Reality

This is where I would argue things get complicated. This extra time you spend with your AI agents will at some stage become too invasive in your life.

Whether it’s at the dinner table where you’re staring at your phone typing frantically or out with friends and they notice you are not really present.

Having constant access to your AI agents means your mind can never switch off.

This thought will become your mantra — “When I just do this THEN everything will be good”

This behaviour has all the hallmarks of an addict. The scary thing is I am already seeing it in myself.

I have started a serious side project now I know I can do more than I previously could have thanks to AI. I spend many hours thinking about it. I catch myself when I’m away from the computer thinking about the next feature I need to implement. If I had an agent on my phone when watching Netflix with my family I know I wouldn’t be able to resist typing in that next prompt.

This is the main reason this new release from Claude code scares me. I can see how easy it would be to add something to my life that ultimately would make my whole quality of life worse.

What You Can Do To Prevent This?

These are more instructions to myself than anyone else but I think others will benefit from this too.

First of all set clear boundaries.

• I will only ever use agents at my computer.
• I will never work past 9pm.
• I will always take Sundays fully off.

I feel I should maybe print these off and stick them on my desk. The risk of falling off this path is so easy these days.

Another important detail is to understand that you are not missing out. 80% of the stuff people are building with AI right now is horse-shite. 19% will be good developers utilising AI well to build better software. Then there will always be that 1% who manage to find gold.

The problem with our current system is we always hear about the 1% and think that that could be us.

Another thing to understand is that “More code means better software” is a horrible myth. This has never been true and never will be true. Those AI gangsters on twitter bragging about the number of lines of code they have produced with AI today should be ignored at all costs.

In hindsight the friction we had before to even start a project was actually a good thing. It separated out the trash ideas from the good ideas before you even started.

If you think something will take you 1 week, give yourself 3 weeks. Not only will it take the pressure off but you are much more likely to make a much better piece of software. Building one piece of great software will always triumph 10 average projects. Whether using AI or not, building great software takes time and many iterations.

Conclusion

I fear that the infrastructure being built up around these AI tools will start intruding into our lives more and more. For the younger generations, I see this being especially problematic.

The human brain continually has thoughts and ideas and this has plagued our condition for centuries. These generative AI models and the tooling around them have tapped into giving an outlet for these thoughts and ideas. “If I just add this one thing… If I just build this one app… THEN everything will be right in the world and I will be happy.”

I have to constantly remind myself there are so many more aspects to being alive and all should be allowed their time to be explored and enjoyed. I have a beautiful family, a loving wife and wonderful friends. I take these for granted too often and end up spending much of my time trying to build something I think will make me happy. It’s like I have won the prize already but I don’t realise it.

I know my best ideas will likely come to me when I’m not at my computer anyway. It will come to me when I’m on a walk, doing the daily commute or taking a shower.

I think allowing more of these times into your life and focus a little less on the constant creation is honestly the way forward.

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