“Can these AI labs collapse that cost [and] progress the tech enough in a way that it eventually meets in the middle with customers’ appetite for spending?” Sean wondered.

Kirsten, meanwhile, suggested that this also reflects “how quickly things are moving.” In just a few months, companies became obsessed with “tokenmaxxxing,” then turned against it due to the high costs. So as AI companies write their IPO filings, she asked, “How do you even write these risks in, because they are evolving before our eyes?”

Anthony Ha: When we were planning for this, Sean, you called this the Tokenpocalypse. And I want to hear more about what you think about it, but there was an example of Microsoft deciding with GitHub Copilot that they’re going to start charging more per token [instead of a flat rate].

This whole ecosystem is heavily, heavily subsidized by investor money. And so stuff that seems like it has no cost is, in fact, incredibly expensive. And now we’re going to get to a point where more of that cost is going to get passed on to the end consumer, to the customer. How is that going to change behavior? I don’t think we know, but there’s going to be a lot of pain.