{"id":98743,"date":"2026-06-23T13:55:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=98743"},"modified":"2026-06-23T14:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:00:06","slug":"ais-getting-expensive-for-us-these-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2026\/06\/23\/ais-getting-expensive-for-us-these-days\/","title":{"rendered":"AI’s getting expensive for us these days"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From DSC:<\/span><\/em>
\nI used to be able to bring up Firefly on the web and use it “free” of charge — I didn’t have to go purchase tokens or credits. (I was actually paying for the Adobe Creative Cloud Pro suite of tools…so it wasn’t really free.) <\/span><\/p>\n

But the other day I was trying to figure out what the latest pricing is at Adobe with that suite of tools and the use of credits for AI-based features. They say Adobe Creative Cloud Pro users get 4000 credits a month. Well, I have that suite and I’m still getting prompted to purchase credits. Firefly for individuals<\/a> runs from $9.99 (2,000 credits\/month) to $139.91 per month (50,000 credits per month). Not inexpensive, right? Below are other items along these lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Era of Affordable AI Is Over. What Comes Next?<\/strong><\/a> — from builtin.com by\u00a0Ameya Kanitkar
\nAI providers are shifting to usage-based billing for their services. AI fluency is more important now than ever to make the most of your tools to avoid unnecessary spending.<\/em><\/p>\n

Summary:\u00a0<\/strong>The era of cheap, flat-rate AI is ending as providers shift to usage-based billing. Every prompt now carries a direct cost, turning casual use into major budget risks, as seen when Uber depleted its 2026 AI budget in four months. Leaders must now track real-time value and token efficiency.<\/p>\n

For a brief window, companies had access to\u00a0the most transformative technology in a generation\u00a0at the cost of a streaming subscription. Tools like\u00a0ChatGPT\u00a0put\u00a0AI\u00a0within reach of anyone with a browser and time for experimentation, while\u00a0GitHub Copilot\u00a0came in at just $10 a month, with token costs remaining relatively low. In the beginning, experimentation felt cost-effective, easy and relatively low-risk.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But that era is ending, and the bill is coming due faster than a lot of enterprise leaders anticipated.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The Fable of AI in Education<\/a><\/strong> — from downes.ca by Stephen Downes
\n<\/strong>Marc Watkins, Rhetorica, Jun 17, 2026<\/p>\n

Tokenomics will be a hot topic of discussion on university campuses because, as Marc Watkins notes in this article, there is no realistic path forward to providing all students with access to advanced AI.<\/p>\n

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From this posting on LinkedIn.com from Dr. Nick Jackson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

And now there is a third layer emerging. Institutions are waking up to a systems-level question they are likely not remotely prepared for. Who pays for AI? How are budgets managed when there are unclear token consumption pricing models? How is AI procured? Who decides what tools get used and by whom and who gets access and at what level?<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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