Angie Jones, formerly VP of engineering for AI tools at Block, told LeadDev she expected the industry to pivot toward measuring efficient token usage rather than celebrating volume. In a cycle where GPU orders and power commitments are being placed years in advance, the quality of the demand projections behind them matters. The hyperscalers are building for a world where every knowledge worker consumes hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual compute. Whether that consumption proves productive or performative will determine how much of this year's $700 billion generates durable returns.
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Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist.\u00a0 Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.\u00a0 ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-23/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Luke James Social Links Navigation Contributor Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.
King_V "We swear, this is really absolutely the next big thing and totally necessary!" they screamed, almost as if they had to convince themselves. Reply
thesyndrome This is very clearly a method to try and trick shareholders to convince them that paying through the nose for the AI is beneficial "Look at how much our workers are using it!" – Said by man mandating that his workers use it, because he was the one who told everyone they needed it in the first place. The business world has a HUGE ego problem at the moment, with the people at the top being so unwilling to admit to being wrong that they are more willing to let their companies fail than to admit their choices are bleeding it dry (though in some cases, I'm sure that CEO/executive is 100% aware that their decisions will destroy the company, but it makes them personally very rich in a short timeframe, then they just 'golden parachute' to the next company to do it all over again) Reply
hotaru251 the amount of wasted power & water to meet these "required usage" should be illegal. Reply
Findecanor When a metric becomes a goal, it seizes to be a useful metric… Now where have we heard that before? Reply
bit_user King_V said: "We swear, this is really absolutely the next big thing and totally necessary!" they screamed, almost as if they had to convince themselves. My company also has usage targets that we have to meet. It feels to me like some executive made a pitch to the higher-ups that we should spend money on AI services to boost our productivity, and they're worried the productivity gains won't come if we don't use it enough. However, if we use it and the gains still don't come, I guess they're in hot water? I find it useful for code reviews. Some of my co-workers are using it more aggressively, and I can tell you the quantity of their output went up but the quality (which wasn't great to begin with) did not. Reply
bit_user hotaru251 said: the amount of wasted power & water to meet these "required usage" should be illegal. The way capitalist systems usually curb waste of valuable resources is to increase cost (e.g. through taxation, regulated cost structures, or fines). Then, let the profit-motive of the company, and competitive pressures it's under, work to minimize usage of those resources. Sometimes, this happens by simply moving where the work happens to a jurisdiction where the cost increases don't apply. Economists call it "comparative advantage", when one region has lower costs than another. This works to stimulate trade. Reply
bit_user thesyndrome said: The business world has a HUGE ego problem at the moment, with the people at the top being so unwilling to admit to being wrong Well, there's some of that. For instance, I heard about a company that fired most of its software developers, trying to replace them with AI. The AI was so bad that they had to bring in a consulting firm at a much higher rate than they were previously paying their developers. This is from a good source, although the software company wasn't named. Another thing that happens is sort of like a FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), where execs hear about a trend and are afraid of being behind the curve (or at least seeming to). As long as it's something everybody else is doing, that gives them coverage to try it for themselves. However, fads often fade almost as quickly as they appear. If a critical mass of businesses decide that AI was over-hyped and take their foot off the gas pedal, the whiplash could end up being severe. I'll say this: AI is certainly over-hyped, but it does have real uses. It's just that you get maybe a 10% boost in productivity, and right now it's sort of a one-time thing, rather than an annual 10% improvement. We don't know if or when AI will deliver the next big boost. For that to happen in software development, it needs to get good enough that it no longer requires detailed human oversight, which I think is a fairly long way off. Reply
fball922 bit_user said: I'll say this: AI is certainly over-hyped, but it does have real uses. It's just that you get maybe a 10% boost in productivity, and right now it's sort of a one-time thing, rather than an annual 10% improvement. We don't know if or when AI will deliver the next big boost. For that to happen in software development, it needs to get good enough that it no longer requires detailed human oversight, which I think is a fairly long way off. And we are about to find out what that 10% actually costs as providers pivot to pay by usage models. Reply
Trake_17 hotaru251 said: the amount of wasted power & water to meet these "required usage" should be illegal. I'm not sure how you could effectively implement this sort of thing in a free society, but I agree with your sentiment. It's wasteful on a scale that absolutely injures others. Reply
Trake_17 bit_user said: Well, there's some of that. For instance, I heard about a company that fired most of its software developers, trying to replace them with AI. The AI was so bad that they had to bring in a consulting firm at a much higher rate than they were previously paying their developers. This is from a good source, although the software company wasn't named. Another thing that happens is sort of like a FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), where execs hear about a trend and are afraid of being behind the curve (or at least seeming to). As long as it's something everybody else is doing, that gives them coverage to try it for themselves. However, fads often fade almost as quickly as they appear. If a critical mass of businesses decide that AI was over-hyped and take their foot off the gas pedal, the whiplash could end up being severe. I'll say this: AI is certainly over-hyped, but it does have real uses. It's just that you get maybe a 10% boost in productivity, and right now it's sort of a one-time thing, rather than an annual 10% improvement. We don't know if or when AI will deliver the next big boost. For that to happen in software development, it needs to get good enough that it no longer requires detailed human oversight, which I think is a fairly long way off. I expect it will follow much as the PC and then the internet. We don't yet really understand what the tech is going to become both because it'll take a generation growing up with it to really create ideas and because it's changing so fast. We also, like with smart phones, aren't likely to know how much it's going to injure people either for a generation. It will eventually create big changes that we aren't as yet really capable of visualizing. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/big-tech-has-a-tokenmaxxing-habit#main
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.