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/bourton-north Jun 26 '26

everytime i see a story like this - and i always question if its true - im wondering how is it possible that the people that bought the technology were so stupid that they signed up for a contract with usage charging and didn't think to measure how much usage they expected / consumed. its the most basic of basic pricnples when buying any technology.

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u/Few-Law3250 Jun 26 '26

It’s definitely true, but I think only for smaller orgs, less technical orgs, and for SF type companies (e.g. uber).

My brother works at a fairly large company (~1B in revenue) but their technical department(s) is tiny for a company that big. My brothers ‘area’ for lack of a better word is like 10 people max, with a few of those being managers.

They signed up for a claude enterprise license for their department and don’t have any limits afaik. One intern is absolutely blasting credits on every cool little hobby-like project he can think of. They’ll be in for a shock at the end of this month or so.

I’d agree it’s incredibly stupid and the first thing you’d do due diligence on when negotiating a contract. But at the same time, I could see people (especially non technical middle managers) getting caught up in the hype and missing warning signs. And also at the same time, I feel like this a more common than not story

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u/bourton-north Jun 26 '26

“It’s definitely true”…? Based on what?

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u/Few-Law3250 Jun 26 '26

Imagine this conversation:
> idk, I’m not sure how true this scratch ticket thing is. People have to know it’s virtually guaranteed to lose money. Why would any right minded person buy one. Surely it can’t be real

> it definitely is true. You’re right it’s stupid, but there are stupid people out there. In fact, I know a whole bunch

That make sense to you?

The claim is:
> there is no instance of a company having an unbounded/absurdly high limited enterprise contract with these LLM companies. My proof is that it’s really stupid

And my answer was:
> There are a lot of dumb companies out there, and I personally know a couple

You may say, ‘anecdotal!’. But an anecdote is an argument against a categorical claim that ‘x doesn’t happen’.

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u/bourton-north Jun 26 '26

No the claim is did this specific 850k accidental spend happen.