Apple Reportedly Slashes Internal AI Budgets as Token Rationing Replaces 'Tokenmaxxing'

Apple is cutting the daily amount its engineering teams can spend on AI, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. It's a significant shift for a company that has worked to integrate the technology into its engineering processes.

Spending Caps Tighten

In October, Apple lowered the daily AI spending cap for its engineering teams from $300 to $200, the outlet reported. More cuts are reportedly in the works, with some allowances falling to $100 a day. Outside engineering, Apple is weighing a daily limit as low as $25 a day, according to sources cited by Bloomberg.

TechCrunch has reached out to Apple for comment.

From 'Tokenmaxxing' to Token Rationing

Earlier this year, a wave of tokenmaxxing took hold, with companies pushing staff to use AI as much as possible in the name of vaguely defined efficiency gains. The frenzy was short-lived, however: once the bills for those tokens came due, companies decided that token rationing might be a more fiscally sensible approach.

Concerns persist about an apparent gap between what AI costs to build and run and the often unclear productivity gains the technology is supposed to generate.

via TechCrunch AI