Amazon wants its engineers to be pickier about using AI. Andy Jassy spent years telling everyone to use more of it. Now comes the memo.
The memo targets "tokenmaxxing." Engineers apparently compete to burn through as many AI tokens as possible. That is a real hobby now. Grown adults with six-figure salaries are racing to see who can ask a chatbot the most questions.
Think about the meeting where this became a problem. Someone at Amazon, a company that sells garbage bags and runs a good chunk of the internet, had to stand up and say: please stop talking to the computer so much.
Jassy built the incentive. Jassy pushed AI into every corner of the business. Engineers heard "use more AI" and did what engineers do with any metric. They maxed it. Then management panicked at the bill.
This is a fake corporate press release, but the memo is real in spirit: Amazon is pleased to announce a bold new commitment to thinking before typing. Pilot programs will begin as soon as someone locates a brain.
Retail traders will read this and buy more Amazon. They will say the company is "disciplined on costs." They will say it with their whole chest, from a rented apartment, holding calls that expire Friday.
Nothing about this changes the stock. Nothing about the stock changes your life. You own four shares and a feeling.
Amazon asked its smartest employees to use AI less. You have been asking a chatbot whether to sell your Nvidia.
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