Token-Based Pricing Doesn't Survive Adoption Curves (opens in new tab)

Uber's CTO told the world this month that the company spent its entire 2026 AI allocation by April. The story has been reported in a handful of outlets, hit the front page of Hacker News for 397 points and 469 comments, and is mostly being read as a cost-of-AI-tools story. It is one. It is also, on a closer reading of the numbers, a pricing-model story — and the structural fact that almost none of the coverage has emphasized is the one that determines whether this is a one-company anomaly or ...