Uber reports AI costs rising without proportional productivity gains
uber coo andrew macdonald reported that ai costs are rising without proportional productivity gains, exhausting their annual budget in months.
gary marcus highlighted growing corporate skepticism regarding ai roi, citing uber coo andrew macdonald's admission that the company blew its annual ai budget in months without proportional productivity gains. this trend extends to starbucks, which scrapped an ai inventory experiment after nine months due to frequent miscounts, and target, which expressed anxiety about agent pricing models. additionally, microsoft reportedly cut off licenses for claude code, at least partially due to cost concerns. marcus argues that if these efficiency issues persist, the market expectations for pending multi-trillion dollar ipos could face a severe reality check.