Posted: 5/21/2026 9:04:40 PM EDT
 Amazon Employees Are Faking Their AI Usage ???????? |
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The company I work for is keeping tabs on usage and watching. We have been told to embrace it or maybe think about going elsewhere. It is a shifting world out there. The video is a clip from The WAN Show (Linus Tech Tips) titled “Amazon Employees Are Faking Their AI Usage.”  Summary Linus and Luke discuss a Financial Times report (from around May 12, 2026) revealing that Amazon employees are “token maxing” — artificially inflating their AI usage metrics to meet company pressure and expectations.  Key points: • Amazon has aggressively pushed AI adoption, setting targets like having over 80% of developers use AI tools weekly. They track “AI token” consumption (usage of AI models) and maintain internal leaderboards.  • Employees are using an internal AI agent tool called MeshClaw (which can handle tasks like code deployments, email triage, and Slack interactions) to automate non-essential or completely unnecessary tasks just to boost their stats and appear productive/aligned with the “AI-first” push. • This is compared to old-school tricks like mouse jigglers — faking activity to satisfy management metrics rather than for genuine productivity. • The hosts find it hilarious and ironic, noting it as a classic example of Goodhart’s Law (“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”). It highlights how top-down AI mandates can lead to gaming the system instead of real value.  The clip critiques corporate AI hype, where pressure from leadership (and possibly investor expectations) creates performative usage rather than meaningful integration. Comments in the video echo this, with viewers calling out the “snake eating its tail” dynamic in Big Tech.  It’s a short, entertaining discussion typical of WAN Show clips. The full episode is available on the LTT channel. |
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Originally Posted By memory_leak: Management gets a weekly report on how much AI was used by you, along with daily 'do more AI' meetings. We partnered with Palantir, so I think management is trying to justify that expense I could say so much about that, but I'll settle for 'gross'. I'm so glad I'm out of tech, I feel for you. |
God's children are not for sale.
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Originally Posted By digitalebola: The company I work for is keeping tabs on usage and watching. We have been told to embrace it or maybe think about going elsewhere. It is a shifting world out there. Which is weird, right? You are proactively being told to use something that costs considerable resources against a sector conducting circular financing. |
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Originally Posted By MMcCall: Elaborate Originally Posted By MMcCall: Originally Posted By memory_leak: I live the 'you must use AI lifestyle', the video is not wrong Elaborate Demanded by this years performance review / plan. Can't just be question and answer type usage either. Needs to be a "viable" application of AI. WTF that is. |
There's nothing wrong with a little personal baggage, it's owning the whole luggage store that's the problem.
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Originally Posted By TampaTyron: OP and others on this thread, have your emploters backed off the token leader boards/tokenmaxxing? Multiple of my customers started backing off in the last 3-4 weeks, with some of them making the news recently. TT |
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Originally Posted By memory_leak: I think we are flat rate until the end of the month ( probably like a drug dealer's "first one is free" deal ) so I expect the bill at the end of july will sound retreat there are pitch forks and torches in the company chat... this should be fun |
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OP isnt wrong while the cost of AI is through the fucking roof at the moment, the push to use it and be a leader in finding usage is also still through the roof... and the only measure of adoption is cost, so cost is literally both a virtue and a sin at the same time. |
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| I won't watch the video because I hate Linus, but I work in FAANG and it's real. My job has little to nothing to do with anything that AI could optimize, but we've been told to "us AI or get fired." I now have 6 agents working 24/7 on my behalf doing stupid shit. I'm "AI Native," though, according to our scoring. |
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Originally Posted By Ekizel: I won't watch the video because I hate Linus, but I work in FAANG and it's real. My job has little to nothing to do with anything that AI could optimize, but we've been told to "us AI or get fired." I now have 6 agents working 24/7 on my behalf doing stupid shit. I'm "AI Native," though, according to our scoring. A lot of companies are doing this and it will stop when they get the bill. Then AI will be ripped out and only a select few will get access. |
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Originally Posted By digitalebola: The company I work for is keeping tabs on usage and watching. We have been told to embrace it or maybe think about going elsewhere. It is a shifting world out there. Brad, is that you? I just had this conversation with a minion last week. He needs to either embrace it and step it up or he needs to consider a different employer (or a career change). |
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Originally Posted By IPv6: Brad, is that you? I just had this conversation with a minion last week. He needs to either embrace it and step it up or he needs to consider a different employer (or a career change). Originally Posted By IPv6: Originally Posted By digitalebola: The company I work for is keeping tabs on usage and watching. We have been told to embrace it or maybe think about going elsewhere. It is a shifting world out there. Brad, is that you? I just had this conversation with a minion last week. He needs to either embrace it and step it up or he needs to consider a different employer (or a career change). Funny, and even funnier if true! but in seriousness, thats a convo that happens daily at hundreds of employers these days. |
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huge push to use co-pilot. it isn't ai no matter how much they claim it is. they kept pushing to use it to automate going through a pdf file and finding data in it. first non-tech person tried and failed. second sort of tech person tried and failed. finally got to me. I built up 7 iterations getting more details out of it each time. on the 8th, it just started giving garbage. same results as the other 2 people that tried. told management and automated it with a different tool. |
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It seems like the people embracing AI to essentially cut jobs, think they are safe and are just are digging graves for the other “unimportant” people, the untermenschen so to speak. They’re like Kapos, fucking over their own people to get better treatment from their slave masters. The jokes on them though as they will eventually get a |
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Originally Posted By wswartzendruber: Which is weird, right? You are proactively being told to use something that costs considerable resources against a sector conducting circular financing. Originally Posted By wswartzendruber: Originally Posted By digitalebola: The company I work for is keeping tabs on usage and watching. We have been told to embrace it or maybe think about going elsewhere. It is a shifting world out there. Which is weird, right? You are proactively being told to use something that costs considerable resources against a sector conducting circular financing. It's like when they bring in H1B's while the old employees are still there. Training their (less expensive) replacement. |
I know I'll never go home.
So set fire to your ships, and past regrets, and be free.
So set fire to your ships, and past regrets, and be free.
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Originally Posted By TNC: It's like when they bring in H1B's while the old employees are still there. Training their (less expensive) replacement. If tech hadn't had the cheap, easy labor of H1Bs to fall back on and salaries for native engineers had remained high, the AI push probably would have happened a lot sooner. |
God's children are not for sale.
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Originally Posted By MMcCall: If tech hadn't had the cheap, easy labor of H1Bs to fall back on and salaries for native engineers had remained high, the AI push probably would have happened a lot sooner. Originally Posted By MMcCall: Originally Posted By TNC: It's like when they bring in H1B's while the old employees are still there. Training their (less expensive) replacement. If tech hadn't had the cheap, easy labor of H1Bs to fall back on and salaries for native engineers had remained high, the AI push probably would have happened a lot sooner. Why not do both? Replace American workers with AI and hire H1Bs to review the slop. Bonus points for off shoring. |