Amazon has told its software engineers to stop padding their AI usage just to look productive, according to an internal memo circulated in September and posted publicly on the company’s website this week. The practice of extreme AI usage, popularly known as “tokenmaxxing,” has been encouraged by tech giants, but now that they face huge usage bills, they seem to be cutting back.
\n\nCNBC reports that the Amazon memo discourages what is known as “tokenmaxxing,” running up AI token consumption to look more active with the technology. It also redraws how Amazon defines the roles of software development engineers and managers now that AI tools sit inside daily coding work. “We’re just seeing the beginning of AI’s effect on software engineering,” the memo states.
\n\nCompanies across the tech industry are wrestling with the rising cost of AI tools and struggling to measure whether the technology actually makes workers more productive. Some firms have capped how many tokens employees can burn through; others have shifted tasks to cheaper, open-source models to hold down costs — including Chinese alternatives. Amazon has not gone that route. A company spokesperson said Amazon has not instituted caps on employee token usage.
\n\nAmazon has run into…
Original source: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/