The Army Is Burning Through Its AI Tokens (wired.com)
- Reference: 0184586264
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/07/22/179241/the-army-is-burning-through-its-ai-tokens
- Source link: https://www.wired.com/story/the-army-is-burning-through-its-ai-tokens/
> A little over a month after the Department of Defense (DOD) [1]bragged that nearly half of its 3.5 million employees were using AI at work, members of the Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) received an email informing them that they were [2]burning through tokens, and needed to limit use . "Although the Army CIO announced in May 2026 that they were offering unlimited tokens, by mid-June the Army CIO pool was exhausted of tokens and had to re-establish limits," the email reads. The email goes on to say that although the Army has chosen to renew token usage at "its current levels," it's unclear "if the Army CIO pool will be renewed after 1 Oct."
>
> The Army uses [3]Ask Sage , a multimodal generative AI platform where users can run different large language models (LLMs), including Alphabet's Gemini, Meta's Llama, and OpenAI's ChatGPT. "Apparently the whole Army burned through the whole year of tokens for just one service," says an Army employee who spoke to WIRED [...]. The Army employee says that the Army has been pushing its workers to lean into using generative AI. Employees were given an allotment of at least 200,000 tokens per month, according to emails viewed by WIRED, and were automatically allocated more if they burned through their initial allotment. Employees who had signed up for Ask Sage but were not regularly using it would receive emails encouraging them to use more of their allocated tokens.
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> In order to use Ask Sage, the Army had access to 100,000,000 tokens as part of an annual subscription to an "enterprise pack." Tokens represent a unit of output, either in text or image, from an LLM. For the Ask Sage tool, a single token equates to about 3.7 characters, according to documents viewed by WIRED. The Defense Department burned through some 20 billion tokens per day during the 38-day Operation Epic Fury in Iran, according to Breaking Defense. It's unclear if the tokens used by regular DOD employees are drawn from the same pool as those who might be using AI tools on classified or secret information.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/user-increase-dod-workers-using-military-ai-program-daily-official-2026-6
[2] https://www.wired.com/story/the-army-is-burning-through-its-ai-tokens/
[3] https://www.army.mil/article/285537/army_launches_army_enterprise_llm_workspace_the_revolutionary_ai_platform_that_wrote_this_article
65 years later... (Score:4, Insightful)
> In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
> We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
[1]https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20... [yale.edu]
[1] https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/eisenhower001.asp
Re:65 years later... (Score:5, Insightful)
> [1]https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20... [yale.edu]
I have to say - it's VERY depressing reading that and comparing President Eisenhower's thoughtful words with the bile, bombast, and often even absolute hatred that's regularly spewed by the current occupant of that office.
[1] https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/eisenhower001.asp
Re: (Score:2)
And the barely-ever-quoted next paragraphs, perhaps even more salient?
"Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forc
Wait, what? (Score:1)
The Army is using Google, Facebook and some random LLM, aka someone's else computer to do it's business? Wow, I now feel much more secure.
Re: (Score:2)
they're mainly using palantir and it is proving to be very effective for ... pounding sand and concrete, which turns out to not be effective at all.
btw, don't worry, the "army" has never been about securing you , it's only there to secure a few fat banker's business. (ok, some dedicated branches are there to make sure that you don't step out of line)
Chickens are home to roost. (Score:3)
The true cost of an AI query is coming to light. Also wtf is the army outsourcing anything to someone else's datacenter ON THE INTERNET? They get tax payer money almost like a blank check. They should have their own physically secure data centers AND they should not be on the internet...
Re: (Score:2)
AI Overview:
To overcome the fear of breaking things, reframe mistakes as feedback rather than failures.
20 billion tokens per DAY?? (Score:2)
when all they had to do was use a map?
how did they manage to not get slaughtered in Afghanistan and Iraq, without AI?
Re: (Score:2)
by using a map.
200k tokens is $10/month at most! (Score:4, Interesting)
Claude Fable is super expensive at $50/Mtok for output, but even so 200k is only 10 bucks! Opus 4.8 etc. are half the cost. What's the freakout all about?
It would be insanely easy to go over that limit in a month when doing any kind of serious work. Calling it "burning through" is misleading.
Overpriced AI (Score:1)
3.7 character per token? No wonder theyâ(TM)re âoeburning throughâ them - that doesnâ(TM)t get you very farâ¦
Ask Sarge would be better (Score:3, Funny)
Like ask Jeeves but with get 'er done attitude
Re: (Score:2)
+1
AI arguments aside... (Score:2)
Until someone can really, and I mean REALLY, explain to me what constitutes a token in a way that I can calculate and predict, these sorts of billing models are meaningless. Only then can we evaluate what the costs, risks and benefits of AI use really are in any sort of quantifiable way.
Re: (Score:3)
according to google ai
Helpful rules of thumb for English:
1 token 4 characters
1 token ¾ of a word
100 tokens 75 words
1–2 sentences 30 tokens
1 paragraph 100 tokens
~1,500 words 2,048 tokens
Re: (Score:2)
Didn't a token used to be a word? That's shrinkflation!
It's all that extra Testosterone! (Score:2)
Driving the generation of SUPER FREAKY AI PR0N!!!!
$23k toilet is outdated (Score:2)
Nobody remembers or cares that a B-2's toilet cost $23k, so the Pentagon is updating to a newer, better form of government waste that kids today will better understand.
list games (Score:2)
list games
Normal (Score:2)
"The Defense Department burned through some 20 billion tokens per day during the 38-day Operation Epic Fury in Iran, "
How many thousands asking "When should I place my Polymarket bet, is it NOW?"
The Army is not capitalist (Score:1, Insightful)
The US military mostly does not use capitalism. It is the largest anti-capitalism organization in the USA. They care about lives, not bank accounts. It is run in a bureaucratic system that is far more similar to socialism than the Republican party wants to admit.
Therefore it has to deal with the various weaknesses of that system, one of which is over-use of resources for 'trendy' and 'popular' ideas at the expense of the less sexy but more efficient programs.
Right now that means drones and AI rule.
Re:The Army is not capitalist (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't about that. This is corruption, pure and simple. The US taxpayer is hemorrhaging money directly into the wallets of the AI companies, who undoubtedly paid off the guy at the top.
Re: (Score:1)
The time to worry about that would have been before electing the world's most prolific con artist to the world's most powerful position of authority. Our president is a scammer, so our economy is a scam. The American people decided in November 2024 that this is who we are.
Re: (Score:2)
Should the Army be capitalist? You say this like it's a bad thing.
Re: (Score:2)
> Should the Army be capitalist? You say this like it's a bad thing.
Yeah, Chernobyl, tanks in Ukrainian, and Air Defense in Iran, etc are kind of demonstrating the problems with relying on Communist designs.
Re:The Army is not capitalist (Score:4, Informative)
Why can there only be capitalism and communism? You know there are varying degrees of each system. The Soviet Union had some brilliant minds. For example the math behind stealth aircraft [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The problem was they didn't have quality manufacturing capabilities. Even when they cranking out semiconductors they were decades behind the west in terms of lithography and material purity.
Another personal favorite of mine is Leon Theremin (yes that musical instrument) and his listening device. [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ufimtsev
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
Re: (Score:2)
> The Soviet Union had some brilliant minds.
All populations have some brilliant minds. It whether the system around them limits them or not.
> They were decades behind the west
In part due to the organization of their society.
Re: (Score:2)
Soviet weapons best in world! Take Dshka and AK-47 Spetznas. Eat M16 for zavtrak! two times. and fill plate 3rd time!
At fraction of price!
The only thing more expensive than weapons procurement in this country is healthcare. We probably pay more money to healthcare executives than all of the defense contractors combined. I'm making that up, but it sounds plausible.
Re: (Score:3)
No, nor should education, healthcare, road repair, or water/sewage/trash/gas.
Explain why you think they should.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd add utilities (electricity, internet) to that list.
But think of the children. If you deprive the capital owners from making money off of basic human needs, they won't be able to hire servants, who won't be able to feed their kids. It's for the kids.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, this isnt cost effective or efficient. Instead what it does is moves tax money from the people, to oligarchs/rich. This was the argument back in 1980s as they were migrating public works to private company bidding.
Which, as we see today, isnt a smart move by the people, but it is for those with those businesses, they get rich off of this, where as public works, no one gets rich, they just get paid and then pay taxes on that, literally a circular monetary system vs the Oligarch hording one.
Re: The Army is not capitalist (Score:1)
they care about lives? tell us more about you never been in service nor know anything about the military. that was a good troll tho lol
Re: (Score:2)
> they care about lives? tell us more about you never been in service nor know anything about the military. that was a good troll tho lol
Actually your just the mirror image of what you claim to hate. Just ignorance of the opposite polarity.
People who actually served know very well that it varies from officer to officer.
Re: (Score:3)
> Right now that means drones and AI rule.
Yes, the corporals producing the power points, charts, and graphics for meetings will have to do things themselves once again. I’m not sure I want the E4 maifa to go AI either, that sounds more dangerous than skyet. :-)
The Army is fascist (Score:5, Insightful)
> The US military mostly does not use capitalism. It is the largest anti-capitalism organization in the USA. They care about lives, not bank accounts. It is run in a bureaucratic system that is far more similar to socialism than the Republican party wants to admit.
> Therefore it has to deal with the various weaknesses of that system, one of which is over-use of resources for 'trendy' and 'popular' ideas at the expense of the less sexy but more efficient programs.
> Right now that means drones and AI rule.
In the hopes of clarifying some concepts and descriptive words:
The US army runs under fascism. Management is top-down, everyone has to do what their superior says to do, and if you don't do it there are grave consequences.
All militaries across the globe run under fascism. All militaries throughout history have run under fascism.
Almost all businesses are run under a similar system: there is one person at the top, usually with a vision of what he wants to happen, and everyone from there down what their immediate superior says to do. There is some leeway in the case of business: you can disagree with your superior and perhaps have a discussion, doing the right thing against orders is OK if it works out, and the penalties for disobeying aren't as severe (getting fired versus getting sent to Leavenworth, or being shot).
The fascist model of governance is one of a handful of governing types we know about, and is useful in situations where decisions need to be made quickly based on experience (military planning) or based on vision (business planning). Military actions fall squarely within those situations. It's not the best model for an economic system, where divergent opinions and "try it and see" is more efficient, or a political system where individual corruption can lead to violations in human rights or reasonable policy.
The US military is not capitalistic, but it is not "anti-capitalism" system in the sense that it works against capitalism in any way.
The US military isn't socialist, except that it tries to provide for it's members in compensation for the risks they take. It's similar to businesses providing health insurance or stock options or reimbursement for college courses - we don't normally think of employment perks as "socialism", and in the same manner we shouldn't think of military benefits as socialism either. Socialism is a foundational principle, not a system of perks.
I don't know that using AI is a weakness of the system. The military is famous for actually studying the effects that certain decisions have. You can look up the government's studies on whether and how much coffee improves performance, whether sleep learning is of any use, and the minimum IQ to allow before it takes more resources to manage an individual than the resources the individual brings by enlisting.
Looking into new technologies and their application to warfare is something the US military does very well.
And apropos of nothing, it's completely obvious that drones are a tectonic shift in military technology, this came as a complete surprise from the Ukraine war, and we totally should be pivoting away from expensive missiles and more towards swarms of cheap drones.
I don't know why you're characterizing drones as trendy and popular, either.
Re: (Score:3)
But under fascism, the assets of the Army would be under private ownership, and this is clearly the opposite of what the OP is complaining about (precisely that it isn't privately owned).
It's more accurate to call it some form of socialism.
Re: (Score:2)
Businesses are not run like the US army. Your understanding of them is heavily flawed. They are NOT all alike.
Also, from what I understand, the various US branches are dramatically different. Being on a ship is very different than being a pilot, and both differ from infantry. In truth I hear it matters a lot about who your commander is.
But with regards to businesses, your opinion is far off the norm. Each person running a business runs it differently. Some run it the way you describe, but that is in n