> Uber's unexpected budget burn matters because it signals how valuable AI tools have become to engineering productivity
That's a bit of a logical leap with no demonstrable increase in productivity.
All this shows is that they're spending a lot more on AI than they budgeted for. Nothing else.
Could be negative! All it shows is that Uber is probably incentivizing token usage just like so many other companies are.
You get what you measure.
I think the tech industry in general is taking advantage of the fact that software productivity is hard to quantify to say whatever they want about their AI productivity gains. Apparently we are past the point of having to justify anything and can just equivocate increased AI spend with success.