... Token cost is still heavily subsidized by the frontier labs while they're private companies and raise billions whenever they decide. The downward cost in tokens is unsustainable long term without revolutions training or inference of models.
[−]paid_dot_expert · 2026-10-11 Sun 10:18 UTC ·
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I don't get your maths? [1] 160/9 months != 600 for any given number of days a week e.g. 5,6,7 (something between 6 and 7), but where did the 9 come from, is it some kind of adjustment for weekends? Anyway there is also a concept of "fully loaded employee cost".
In any case the way to think of this is not "/day".
The reason is simple. If you buy 1000 barrels of oil, you buy 1000 barrels of oil not 17.4 days of oil. There is now a disconnect between work done and time. Infact you would be sane if you said "that result I can get in 2 days for $4172, if you can get me that same result in 1 hour, I'd pay $8344". See where this is going?
Yes a lot of thought work is now a commodity, and if you want the commodity faster (last minute booking, uber to come quicker etc.) you pay more not less. Value being $/hour is over.
I have qualms and disagreements with the whole "software factory" concept, but your math doesn't help the argument. The cost of human labor is more than salary—or even hourly rate, if you're thinking of paying a contractor.
AI Software Factory: $4172 / 2 days = $2086/day
This seems unsustainable, unless you're also generating 3x the revenue.
In any case the way to think of this is not "/day".
The reason is simple. If you buy 1000 barrels of oil, you buy 1000 barrels of oil not 17.4 days of oil. There is now a disconnect between work done and time. Infact you would be sane if you said "that result I can get in 2 days for $4172, if you can get me that same result in 1 hour, I'd pay $8344". See where this is going?
Yes a lot of thought work is now a commodity, and if you want the commodity faster (last minute booking, uber to come quicker etc.) you pay more not less. Value being $/hour is over.
[1] The ? acts as both a question and a regex.