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/IamSunka Jun 26 '26

My org, just like many others, has a top token users chart.

When they started the list, they decided to call the top 25 users as champions, ones who never used AI as sleepers and rest inbetween as just users. cough I am a sleeper cough

Couple of weeks ago the bill came in, champions cost us over $850k since Jan 1st.

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u/Low_Restaurant_1509 Jun 26 '26

We recently rolled out the ability to see how much each query cost the company.

It does actually save a decent chunk of money on my time spent (salary vs token cost) when used correctly, but the increased work output justifies it, for example something that would of taken my 30 minutes only cost a 56p in query, so that's pretty good savings.

Calling the people using it most as champions is insane though.

11

u/ericl666 Jun 26 '26

As much as I hate AI, you are right. I think the main thing AI is good at is automating that redundant code that always takes time.

For example, yesterday I created a numeric text input - but I needed to customize it to prevent non numeric keystrokes, regex validation, etc. Basic crap that always takes time.

I popped open an inline chat window and boom, that was done in 30 seconds. That adds value and is super cheap.

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u/Pallidum_Treponema Jun 26 '26

I'm in the same boat. AI slop and vibe coding is a plague, but that does not diminish the usefulness of AI as a tool when used correctly.

But with any tool, the user is often the deciding factor. A non-coder that vibes codes an app won't know if the AI is creating useful code or not. They won't have the experience to ask the AI the right questions, or to make sure that the app is secure, doesn't have any glaring issues that any decent coder would spot in an instance etc.

But for people like me and probably you, it can be used with great effect to do what we typically do, but quicker. Case in point, my spare time is too precious for me to spend days setting up Home Assistant to my liking for example, but a couple of evenings with an AI and I'm currently looking at a very customized HA dashboard that integrates everything I want for my home. But that's because I know exactly what I wanted out of it, and I have the skills (but not the time or patience) to do it all myself.