[satvikpendem]

Not sure about that. As I replied elsewhere, it's a forcing function:

> People misunderstand the point of the tokenmaxxing time period, it was to force people to use AI so as to not have them stuck in their way, as some people are, and then to evaluate how it can help the company.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49047448#49047826

[bigstrat2003]

That is a truly commendable steelman. But let's be honest, there's basically no chance that was true. Management is frequently stupid enough to not think through the second order effects of their policies, and that is likely what happened this time as well.

[satvikpendem]

At least at my workplace this was exactly what we were told, that it's a short term methodology to get people acclimated to thinking about what in their work could be automated, as honestly most do not think that way, they're not like engineers.

[simonw]

I expect everyone understood that.

The obvious second effect is that if you have a leaderboard people will compete to top it, by running dumb loops or whatever.

That impacts how much you can learn, and costs you more money than you wanted to spend.

[mholm]

The excessive spending was part of the point. The market is watching AI spend very closely. AI spend is a proxy for AI absorption. Expanding your MS contract to include Copilot for your rank and file doesn't move the meter much. Letting your engineers run up 100k/month shows extreme absorption. The share price increase potentially pays for the entire token bill once Wall Street goes through your earnings.

[satvikpendem]

Not everyone did understand that, you'll see some comments expressing that they've never heard that perspective before, interestingly enough. But yes Goodhart's Law applies.