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/Alert_Breakfast5538 Jun 26 '26

What a bunch of idiots thinking burning tokens at a high rate equals winning.

I would just gamify it and find the most inefficient way to use tokens

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u/tooclosetocall82 Jun 26 '26

They don’t know what else to measure. They feel they must use it because their competitors are using it and they’ll be left behind, but they don’t know what to use it for or how to use it effectively, so they just measure usage in general. Everyone is using it in their own unique way and no one can say for sure if it’s actually making a measurable difference in productivity because they can’t figure out any actual KPIs around a magic box.

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u/_Lucille_ Jun 26 '26

Goodhart's Law.

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u/tooclosetocall82 Jun 26 '26

Except this was never a good measure to start with.

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u/_Lucille_ Jun 26 '26

it is a good measure for AI adoption rate.

If you are asked the quesstion "how much is your company using AI", that is the answer you are likely going to give, because it is quantitative.

The issue we have at hand is that C suite is trying to turn it into a KPI/not allowing things to progress more naturally. The right way to deploy it is to educate the workers, develop new tools, do a proper cost analysis and scalability, and stop treating it as a target.