Big Tech also controls AI costs…Tesla caps employee AI usage at 300,000 won per week

Big Tech also controls AI costs…Tesla caps employee AI usage at 300,000 won per week

Giant technology companies, which had been encouraging engineers to use artificial intelligence (AI), are gradually shifting towards controlling related costs.

Tesla, the electric vehicle company led by CEO Elon Musk, announced a policy last month to limit employees' AI usage to a maximum of $200 (approximately 300,000 won) per week, according to a report by U.S. IT specialized media The Information, which obtained an internal memo on the 2nd (local time).

This cap will take effect from the 6th, and separate approval must be obtained to use beyond the limit.

However, the trial AI model of xAI, a subsidiary of SpaceX, which is a 'sister company' of the CEO, is excluded from the restrictions.

This is interpreted as a measure to address the situation where the cost of Tesla's software (SW) engineers using AI models has amounted to thousands of dollars or more each week for several months.

Last year, Tesla launched an in-house platform called 'Bottle Rocket' to encourage employees to use AI models such as OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and Cursor.

Recently, it encouraged employees to try out new models of 'Composer' from Cursor, a coding app developer slated for acquisition by SpaceX, and xAI's 'Grok'.

However, internal sources said that employees prefer Anthropic's 'Claude' over these models.

Tesla also seems to have been concerned about the potential leakage of internal data due to external AI usage.

Tesla blocked intranet access to unauthorized external models and introduced security policies to prevent confidential information leakage. It also implemented an AI spending cap.

Silicon Valley's giant tech companies, which had been fueling an AI usage competition, dubbed 'token maximizing' for a while, are now hastily restricting usage as they face increasing costs.

Meta once said it would reflect AI usage in performance bonuses but virtually withdrew it, and other major companies also appear to be shifting towards increasing efficiency.