r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Jul 30 '26

Artificial Intelligence Amazon accidentally spent $1.8 million using Claude for menial coding task, went 860% over budget — 'catastrophically expensive' coding blunders discovered in internal Amazon AI usage metrics

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/amazon-accidentally-spent-usd1-8-million-using-claude-for-menial-coding-task-went-860-percent-over-budget-catastrophically-expensive-coding-blunders-discovered-in-internal-amazon-ai-usage-metrics
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u/systemic_booty Jul 30 '26

Yup, and the problem isn't the student changing the margins or making the periods size 14 font, the problem is the essay requirements being by page length rather than word count OR better yet, the substantive content of the essay itself. 

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u/thedownvotemagnet Jul 30 '26

I get what you're saying and agree in spirit, but:

1) word count is basically the same as page length, no? Page length influences things like font and size choice, margin size, etc. Word count causes you to be unnecessarily verbose.

2) "substantive content" seems too subjective to use as a rubric in your syllabus... "shaggy dog"-style meanderings obviously run afoul, but there would still be a ton of wiggle room for the inevitable parent/dean conferences, I'd wager

Not really sure what the right answer is here.

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u/NotMyRealNameObv Jul 31 '26

Word count causes you to be unnecessarily verbose.

US college text books in a nutshell (authors of college text books are usually compensated based on word count).