AI Coding Live News

X discussion: Dario Amodei says some Claude tokens are worth cents and others tens of millions, floating pay-for-results AI pricing

On Oct 26, investor Guillermo Flor (@guilleflorvs) shared a video clip of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on X. Amodei says Claude has told people to restart their Mac about 10 million times, which is worth a dollar or less, while telling a pharma company to move an aromatic ring to the other end of a molecule could be worth tens of millions of dollars. He expects pay-for-results pricing, or labor-like hourly pricing, to emerge. The post has about 1.11M views and 2,600+ likes, and has been widely quoted by AI builders and analysts over the past day. This is a discussion of the CEO's view, not an Anthropic pricing change.

X discussion: Dario Amodei says some Claude tokens are worth cents and others tens of millions, floating pay-for-results AI pricing

Key Takeaways

  • Engagement (as of 2026-10-28 01:11 UTC, public X API metrics): about 1.11M views, 2,611 likes, 1,779 bookmarks, 364 replies and 326 quotes
  • Source of the view: a video clip of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, posted with a summary by investor Guillermo Flor; the post does not say where the clip is from, and it is not an Anthropic announcement
  • Amodei's two examples: saying 'restart your Mac' about 10 million times is worth a dollar or less, while a molecule-change suggestion to a pharma team could be worth tens of millions of dollars
  • He expects pay-for-results pricing or labor-like hourly pricing, and says many pricing models will be tried because this is a new industry
  • Reality check: per Anthropic's S-1 as cited in the post, usage-based pricing was about 80% of H1 2026 revenue and subscriptions about 20%; much of the debate is that value pricing needs a measurable cost baseline first
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X discussion: big-tech CEOs talk openly about RSI - Google's Sundar Pichai says "we are pretty far from the end state of RSI" yet expects "continued acceleration because of RSI" over the next 12 months, while Sam Altman and Dario Amodei weigh in

Recursive self-improvement (RSI), using models to speed up the development of the next models, became one of the most-used terms in AI circles on X this past week after several big-tech CEOs talked about it in public. Google CEO Sundar Pichai framed it differently on two podcasts. On Alex Kantrowitz's Big Technology Podcast he said "We are pretty far from the end state of RSI." On Alex Heath's Sources podcast he said researchers are co-working with models "in a deep way" and "I would expect the next 12 months to see continued acceleration because of RSI." The widely shared 12-month line comes from the Sources episode, not Big Technology. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Stanford GSB that besides AI recursive self-improvement there is another loop, robots that build robots and data centers that build data centers, that gets "much less talk". Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, replying to a critic on X, wrote about the point where AI-driven acceleration gets fast enough that safety struggles to keep up: "We are nearing that point." This is an X discussion of public remarks by CEOs, not an announcement of any new research program.

Key Takeaways

  • On the Big Technology Podcast (released Oct 20), Pichai said "We are pretty far from the end state of RSI", that today there are "RSI loops along with AI researchers", and that he expects that continuum to keep progressing into next year (Big Technology recap; Kantrowitz post, 68 likes and 9,643 views when we pulled it)
  • On the Sources podcast (released Oct 21, from about 11:52), Pichai said researchers co-work with models "in a deep way", with models suggesting recipes and automatically evaluating next checkpoints, and added "I would expect the next 12 months to see continued acceleration because of RSI" (Alex Heath episode post, 253 likes and 388K views when we pulled it)
  • Reposts that place the 12-month line in the Big Technology interview are wrong; after checking transcripts of both shows we found it in the Sources episode. The early repost from @ONagel33303 had only 4 likes, and its "CONFIRMED: Google plans to accelerate" framing is the reposter's own reading
  • At Stanford GSB's View From The Top (video released Oct 21, at about 33:18), Altman described "robots that can build more robots and then data centers that can effectively build more data centers" as a loop besides AI recursive self-improvement that gets "much less talk"
  • Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, replying to Encode AI's Nathan Calvin, wrote about the point where AI-driven acceleration gets fast enough that it is hard for safety to keep up: "We are nearing that point" (post, 4,103 likes and 1.59M views when we pulled it); Calvin and journalist Garrison Lovely then criticized Anthropic for warning about RSI while backing the AEGIS Act, which they say makes it harder for governments to stop it
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Altman, Musk, and Hassabis Debate Frontier Pacing Protocol and Voluntary Audit Buffers

Following Dario Amodei safety essay, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Demis Hassabis engaged in public dialogues exploring a Frontier Pacing protocol. The proposed voluntary mechanism would trigger a 90-day external security audit buffer whenever next-gen models breach critical capability thresholds.

Key Takeaways

  • Frontier lab leaders explore voluntary 90-day third-party audit buffers for threshold models
  • Sets synchronized circuit breakers for critical cyber-offensive and bio capabilities
  • Reflects profound shift from blind compute scaling to verifiable safety alignment
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