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Uber’s Anthropic AI push hits a wall

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Re: Uber’s Anthropic AI push hits a wall

#11

Post by kelnos »

sd9 wrote: post #8

I see things like 2 sentence menu summaries in Uber Eats that are completely off in tone. A quick sample from my app right now: “Authentic Caribbean Flavours. Jerk Chicken, Curry Goat, and more. A vibrant culinary journey awaits.” - local Caribbean place “Customisable burgers with 250,000+ toppings. Hand-cut fries and rich milkshakes await.” - Five Guys “Authentic Indian cuisine bursting with rich flavours. Perfect f…

Aside from the hilarious "250,000+ toppings" error, these summaries seem... fine? I would be unsurprised to learn that a human came up with them, even. Seems like pretty common/standard marketing copy.

Re: Uber’s Anthropic AI push hits a wall

#12

Post by woeirua »

Holy misleading headlines Batman. They're not spending $3.4B on solely tokens for Anthropic are they? I don't think so...

If anything the CTO is just saying, we're blowing through token budgets way faster than expected as the uptake is so immense. I think that's right from what I've seen. Once people get it, they start using AI for everything. Obviously that's not going to be sustainable forever. I do think we're going to see a lot of adaptive routing in the future to cheaper models for more mundane tasks, whereas right now everything is getting routed to Opus regardless of real need.

Re: Uber’s Anthropic AI push hits a wall

#13

Post by sd9 »

kelnos wrote: post #11
sd9 wrote: post #8

I see things like 2 sentence menu summaries in Uber Eats that are completely off in tone. A quick sample from my app right now: “Authentic Caribbean Flavours. Jerk Chicken, Curry Goat, and more. A vibrant culinary journey awaits.” - local Caribbean place “Customisable burgers with 250,000+ toppings. Hand-cut fries and rich milkshakes await.” - Five Guys “Authentic Indian cuisine bursting with rich flavours. Perfect f…

Aside from the hilarious "250,000+ toppings" error, these summaries seem... fine? I would be unsurprised to learn that a human came up with them, even. Seems like pretty common/standard marketing copy.

Maybe each one is fine in isolation - what doesn’t come across from the sample is that every single one is practically the same. If you have Uber Eats, open up the app and look through the summaries for a bunch of restaurants and you’ll see what I mean.

And besides that, this just feels like something nobody asked for that probably doesn’t sell more food compared to, for example, more pictures.

Re: Uber’s Anthropic AI push hits a wall

#14

Post by w10-1 »

lokar wrote: post #4
amazingamazing wrote: post #2

I was told AI makes people more productive so the costs should easily pay for themselves in the form of more revenue.

The main question is: what is demand elasticity for software? If it low, and lower prices won’t generate much new demand, we should expect AI to improve engineering productivity, and for companies to reduce staff. If it is high, then we should see companies hire more engineers, increase output and lower prices (and earn more).

Bureaucracy creates work so long as it owns the production function. In software that's typically through system upgrades, new API's, etc. The system will grow in internal complexity to its carrying capacity. You'd need someone who understands how to replace parts to prune, but they don't really have the incentive. This effect is reduced where software is less essential to the product, but any software-heavy product (particularly with a moat) will be more susceptible.

Companies try to manage it via CI/CD, outsourcing and internal competition, but no, companies can't magically reduce staff. They can, however, inject fear, which is good for reducing overt bureaucratic games, but actually increases covert bureaucracy and reduces knowledge-sharing, making the problem worse.

Only when incentives are aligned - when developers have an (equity) stake in growing the company - can the culture be open and efficient.

Re: Uber’s Anthropic AI push hits a wall

#15

Post by giaour »

nyc_data_geek1 wrote: post #9
sputknick wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the lesson here is we shouldn't rely on the guys selling picks and shovels when determining if we should be buying picks and shovels.

I’m the CEO of a hot dog company. I’ve worked on hot dogs for 10 years. And I wasn’t prepared for what I’ve just seen. Your life is about to change. So what can you do? Buy as many hot dogs as you can. Buy stock in hot dog companies.

I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hotdog today (if you want to get a circular investment bubble going)

Re: Uber’s Anthropic AI push hits a wall

#16

Post by snovv_crash »

giaour wrote: post #15
nyc_data_geek1 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m the CEO of a hot dog company. I’ve worked on hot dogs for 10 years. And I wasn’t prepared for what I’ve just seen. Your life is about to change. So what can you do? Buy as many hot dogs as you can. Buy stock in hot dog companies.

I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hotdog today (if you want to get a circular investment bubble going)

Do you sell hotdog options? I want some hotdogs at a guaranteed price, but only next week. (I just want upside exposure)

Re: Uber’s Anthropic AI push hits a wall

#18

Post by temp8830 »

kelnos wrote: post #11
sd9 wrote: post #8

I see things like 2 sentence menu summaries in Uber Eats that are completely off in tone. A quick sample from my app right now: “Authentic Caribbean Flavours. Jerk Chicken, Curry Goat, and more. A vibrant culinary journey awaits.” - local Caribbean place “Customisable burgers with 250,000+ toppings. Hand-cut fries and rich milkshakes await.” - Five Guys “Authentic Indian cuisine bursting with rich flavours. Perfect f…

Aside from the hilarious "250,000+ toppings" error, these summaries seem... fine? I would be unsurprised to learn that a human came up with them, even. Seems like pretty common/standard marketing copy.

But why does Uber need to spend 3.4B on injecting a useless blob of text between me and an overpriced burger delivered by a struggling illegal immigrant in a smoke-belching jalopy?

I know the counter-argument. "This will increase sales". You know what else would increase sales? Spending the 3.4B to replace the above with a uniformed delivery service similar to UPS. That job could pay benefits.

Re: Uber’s Anthropic AI push hits a wall

#20

Post by onraglanroad »

kelnos wrote: post #11
sd9 wrote: post #8

I see things like 2 sentence menu summaries in Uber Eats that are completely off in tone. A quick sample from my app right now: “Authentic Caribbean Flavours. Jerk Chicken, Curry Goat, and more. A vibrant culinary journey awaits.” - local Caribbean place “Customisable burgers with 250,000+ toppings. Hand-cut fries and rich milkshakes await.” - Five Guys “Authentic Indian cuisine bursting with rich flavours. Perfect f…

Aside from the hilarious "250,000+ toppings" error, these summaries seem... fine? I would be unsurprised to learn that a human came up with them, even. Seems like pretty common/standard marketing copy.

That's not an error, it's what 5 Guys advertise. It's the number of combinations for their toppings.
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