Companies that use AI well will replace the companies that use AI badly. There is no world in which AI is not used extensively in all employment going forward.

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datsci_est_2015 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I agree, with the caveat that I don’t think any company is using AI well at the moment, specifically because I think our tooling around AI is woefully inadequate and immature.

Right now the AI marketing paradigm is to create rockstar superusers who can (supposedly) do the job of hundreds of individuals at the speed of light! Which bleeds into the design paradigm, which is trash. I’m bullish on AI that can be used more cooperatively and collectively by a company.

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throwatdem12311 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Maybe. But I used to have unlimited Claude Code usage but now I’m relegated to whatever the subscription happens to give me and when I run out of tokens I need to trad code until my limits reset. My manager saw the bill and nearly fell out of his chair. Small companies just can’t afford the added cost of AI at the real price (and we aren’t even in the real price territory yet).

Hell, even Microsoft is having trouble paying Anthropic’s API rates.

There is a ceiling to how much people are willing to pay for work slop. Just look at the backlash to GitHub Copilot’s token based billing changes.

I don’t want to live in a world where the barrier to entry on entrepreneurship is how much you can pay Anthropic or OpenAI.

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contravariant 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You've somehow confused using AI well with using it extensively.

Sometimes using something well involves not using it at all.

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bdangubic 3 hours ago | parent [-]

not using it at all is no longer an option, companies that are not using it at all will die slow/fast death but death nonetheless.

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contravariant 36 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

That's just a baseless assumption. To use AI well you should do the things that allow you to use stuff well. You shouldn't just use it any way you can because you assume that 'not using it at all' is not the best option.

This is literally the same with every single technological development.

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SecretDreams 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Ironically, companies overusing it will probably die at a similar speed. Maybe faster, even, depending whether cash burn or technical debt catches up to them first.

	▲	bdangubic an hour ago \| parent [-]
		100%

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ungreased0675 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Right now LLMs are heavily subsidized. When that ends, the actual cost of the service may exceed its usefulness for many use cases.

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almostdeadguy 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm less sure of the fact that ending subsidized token consumption (in isolation) will happen and change this. I think we've seen this play out before with other tech companies where discounting early use ends up entrenching demand and allowing the company to build larger and more efficient infrastructure.

I'm slightly _more_ convinced (still not all that strongly) that the rising cost of memory and chips, data center construction that gets outpaced by computing demand, increasing energy costs, and low switching costs for customers will force the model labs to make changes that increase the barrier to entry (either via higher pricing, more restrictive rate limiting, etc.). or force their customers into longer term commitments.

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foobarian 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> I think we've seen this play out before with other tech companies where discounting early use ends up entrenching demand and allowing the company to build larger and more efficient infrastructure.

We've also seen failures who were convinced "they would make it up in volume." I guess the bet is that infra will get that much more efficient, but it's not clear how much slack there is.

	▲	foobar10000 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		A lot - and over the coming 2 years, even more. Utilization rates are under 50% across the board, and special and cheaper chips are coming out all the time for inference. And a truckload of research - TurboQuant, HC (deepseek), etc, etc..

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eloisius 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Say the line, Bart!

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LtWorf 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If by "using AI well" you mean kill off customer service; maybe customers will want to switch to other companies that are more expensive but have customer service.