US$125 for 30 minutes of AI. Here's why I'd pay it.
Digital Realty is in Malaysia. Is Johor next?
Asus just launched its best business laptop yet
and more...
Hello Reader,
Today's newsletter is the hundredth issue. It's hard to believe I started this with the simple idea of making sure busy executives don't miss my stories. I hope it continues to be as rewarding for you to read as it is for me to put together.
Earlier this week, I wrote about how I spent 2.5 million tokens in the first 30 minutes of using Anthropic's new Claude Fable model. By Friday I was fretting about how fast I was burning through my weekly quota as I tried to get more done, before it became an expensive, API-only resource.
Imagine my surprise when the counter abruptly reset to zero on Saturday morning, days ahead of schedule. I spotted it at once, because I've built an app that displays the number prominently on one of my monitors. That set off a flurry of activity as I swapped half a dozen sessions over to Fable.
Alas, the reprieve was short-lived. On Friday afternoon US time, the US government issued an order that led to Anthropic withdrawing Claude Fable and Claude Mythos from the public. What I'd experienced was a usage reset performed just as the newly released models were pulled around the world.
So, is Fable as good as the hype suggests? As with everything, I think there's some exaggeration and some truth to it. My limited time with Fable let me quickly resolve coding bottlenecks I couldn't crack with Opus 4.8. In fact, it found a staggering 110 bugs in the first half hour, almost all of which stemmed from complex interactions between multiple modules.
But given the insane cost of Fable, will companies start hiring people again as they flinch from the price of AI? I don't think so. While the very best frontier models are truly exorbitant, AI in general is getting cheaper by the day. And honestly, you don't need Mythos-class intelligence to put people out of work.
The future is unknowable. But as I wrote on Friday, I believe we can expect two things at once: a massive impact on jobs, and a wave of new opportunities. You've probably read more than your lifetime's share about the former, so let's talk about the latter today.
I've come to realise how many people are quietly using AI. For some, myself included, it makes things that simply couldn't be done before, possible. For example, I now write and publish my LinkedIn posts from an app I put together.
I now write and publish LinkedIn posts from this app I put together.
For others, AI sharply lifts both the volume and quality of their output. Others again are using it to compress the amount of time a task takes, freeing up their day for other work.
What about you? What are you doing with AI right now? And do you think a podcast on how ordinary people are doing extraordinary things with AI would be of interest?
Hit reply to this email and let me know.
Regards, Paul Mah
Tech stories on whatsapp
Join 1,700 others on my WhatsApp Channel. Nobody sees your number.
