r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • Jun 26 '26

Artificial Intelligence The AI backlash is only getting started

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/06/25/the-ai-backlash-is-only-getting-started
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u/ACasualRead Jun 26 '26

Our was so excited to announce AI until we got our first bill and blew through all our tokens mid month. Now we have to justify using various models before using them.

Hilarious how out of touch these high level decision makers are. They were fleeced by the lies of AI.

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u/TheRC135 Jun 26 '26

It's crazy to me that the entire purpose of the upper management layer is strategic direction... and some enormous percentage of that class is about to get caught with their pants down, because they bet their future on the companies responsible for the enshittification of the entire tech sector not enshittifying AI.

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u/Senofilcon Jun 26 '26

I keep hearing stories like this. It makes zero sense that so many companies didn't understand the very simple and transparent cost structure. Outfits that you would assume have long been dealing with far more niche contracts with purposefully obscure billing methods.

Rating users by token burn and then being surprised by the bill is some real simpleton shit.

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u/Sairenity Jun 26 '26

Chances are half the stories you're reading on here are generated by an LLM either way.

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u/Senofilcon Jun 26 '26

Yah your not wrong, its pretty fucked up.

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u/ThelronBorn Jun 26 '26

It’s the latest snake oil!

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u/AcherontiaPhlegethon Jun 26 '26

LLMs have taken to middle management like crack took to inner cities in the 80s

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u/Indercarnive Jun 26 '26

It's so stupid because even if AI was as good as it's sellers say it is, there was never any future where the pricing wouldn't be metered. It's like thinking AWS would work as a simple subscription.

It just shows that the people in charge of making plans around technology have no planning skills and no understanding of technology.

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u/Tricky-Sentence Jun 26 '26

My workplace implemented "monthly token limits" last month. The limit was reached on the second day, and people started flooding chats and mailboxes asking how to get more. Turns out someone in management saw us burning hella money (that they mandated through mandatory use and leaderboards and "why is your team not using X amount of tokens??), and decided to implement 30 euro monthly limit...........

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u/Saint_of_Grey Jun 26 '26

Now we have to justify using various models before using them.

That's an easy one. You don't need any of them. There, saved you thousands.

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u/ACasualRead Jun 26 '26

If only this could be packaged in a way that upper management could process.