this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
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472
Execs Confused and Horrified by the Huge AI Bills After Thinking They Could Replace Workers for Free (futurism.com)
submitted 5 hours ago by FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 84 points 2 hours ago (4 children)
  1. Build up reliance on AI, which looks really cheap
  2. You can now replace employees with AI so fire away!
  3. You are now completely dependent on AI and a handful of employees
  4. AI company sees they have you and start jacking up rates. If you could afford paying for people before then you have the $ to pay high rates.
  5. Company now wonders why costs are back to where they were before and the AI isn't working out as expected.
[–] monotremata@lemmy.ca 50 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

It's particularly funny because I'm pretty sure AI companies are still selling the service below cost to try to retain market share (and drive small competitors out of business). They just aren't taking quite as big a loss on every token with the increased prices.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 2 points 39 minutes ago

Pretty much the model for so many internet services or streaming services.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

So, they're earning money on token generation but not overall (including training)?

[–] DeadDigger@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Openai had 2025 6billion in revenue and 20 billion costs on compute. So just to run the models to get 6billion they need to pay 20billion r&d and marketing etc get on top of that

[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 1 points 23 minutes ago (1 children)

I’m sure there’s a term for it but this is like when a company keeps securing funding from investors so they keep growing to try to outpace costs with the illusion that you’re profitable when in reality you’re not. Just like WeWork.

[–] EpeeGnome@feddit.online 1 points 9 minutes ago

It's just a Ponzi scheme with extra steps.

[–] Batmorous@lemmy.world 2 points 37 minutes ago
  1. They see people have gone to new companies thatre private unionized and value customers/employees/etc replacing them as they had done with their employees
  2. The company asks for them to come back to be laughed at as the people watch for them to slowly sink and be replaced with many better alternatives to take their place
  3. That is happening right now and we all can make it happen faster
[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

It’s such a perfect grift

[–] deacon@lemmy.world 13 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah it’s basically the enshitification model

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 8 points 2 hours ago

With the quirk that the service was shit to begin with.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

It's just newsworthy when it happens to companies.