Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by vinyl7 on Saturday August 22, 2026 @01:44PM
(#49401980)
AI companies have a financial incentive to burn more tokens than the task actually needs
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Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by Rudybega on Saturday August 22, 2026 @02:00PM
(#49402113)
This is only true if they can't saturate token production with a model that does less superfluous things. Given that they can (they're hilariously compute strained), having a model that solves tasks more quickly adds way more perceived value to users.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by ohyes on Saturday August 22, 2026 @03:05PM
(#49402751)
Well they decide what a token is. So they can do less superfluous things and backfill with a weaker model.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by DonsDiscountGas on Saturday August 22, 2026 @02:32PM
(#49402433)
Only if the customer is paying per token. If it's by subscription they're burning their own money
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by blehn on Saturday August 22, 2026 @06:02PM
(#49404305)
the subscriptions all have limits. when you hit the limit you again start paying per token.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by nozzlegear on Saturday August 22, 2026 @07:07PM
(#49404737)
If you're on one of the lower tiers (e.g. the $20 tier), they still have that incentive to burn your tokens and upsell the higher tiers.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by jjk166 on Sunday August 23, 2026 @01:37PM
(#49410737)
Burning tokens does little to convince people that more tokens are a good use of money - especially if they are choosing between buying more of your tokens and more of your competitor's tokens.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by pizzafeelsright on Saturday August 22, 2026 @02:19PM
(#49402295)
Agreed although the differences between the effort and reasoning is massive. I generally ship 40 hours in three with AI. I could not figure out why my delivery was behind until I started going through the logs. The thinking was extensive, the effort was beyond the original request by a magnitude of 50x
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by discreteevent on Saturday August 22, 2026 @03:14PM
(#49402845)
How do you even know that it's consistently 40 hours in 3? What kind of developer ever had that kind of estimation accuracy (unless it's really repetitive) or even focuses on productivity rather than the problem like that? This sounds more like factory work than design or development. I really don't get it.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by pizzafeelsright on Saturday August 22, 2026 @08:12PM
(#49405079)
We are in new territory and not everyone gets it.
I am not a developer although I have written production code but that's not what I am talking about.
I know for a fact that I can do a task in a week. It may take 12 or 40 hours but it'll be done in a week. Now with AI? I can get that task done in a day. Anywhere from 3-12 hours.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by owebmaster on Saturday August 22, 2026 @04:42PM
(#49403703)
> I generally ship 40 hours in three with AI.
You ship 3 hours in three with AI. The old number is meaningless now.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by pizzafeelsright on Saturday August 22, 2026 @08:07PM
(#49405056)
Agreed and management is becoming aware.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by eli_gottlieb on Saturday August 22, 2026 @03:16PM
(#49402866)
Just like me fr fr
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by chrisjj on Saturday August 22, 2026 @02:00PM
(#49402115)
A.k.a. theft.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by simianwords on Saturday August 22, 2026 @03:55PM
(#49403221)
nice conspiracy theory, but it doesn't hold. these companies won't last long if people don't get actual work done.
Re:Anthropic appears to be A/B testing reduced effort levels...
by owebmaster on Saturday August 22, 2026 @04:44PM
(#49403712)
There's a big chance these companies won't last long