It will never ever be as cheap as as cron job and a shell script. There is a certain limit to how efficient using an LLM to do a job vs using an LLM to create a job is. There is a large distinction in compute and power resources between the two. Don't mistake one for the other.

> It will never ever be as cheap as as cron job and a shell script.

Yes. That's precisely why my company runs dBase 7 on a fleet of old 286DX machine from Compaq. /s

Running obsolete software will be cheaper, but the value provided by the newer technology will make the difference insignificant.

I don't think so, because that carried efficiency scales.

Why do 50,000 tasks with an LLM when I can do 64,467,235 without an LLM that the LLM created for the same cost on probably far lower cost hardware?

Because in their ideal world, you won't have your own hardware beyond a secured thin client running only "approved" programs running on their servers.