Amazon Calls on Employees to Reduce Artificial Intelligence Usage

Amazon has published an internal memo criticizing "tokenmaxxing," a practice referring to the excessive and indiscriminate use of artificial intelligence in work processes. The company stated that this approach is disconnected from business results and increases costs.

An internal memo published by Amazon on its website on Tuesday targeted "tokenmaxxing," a widespread business practice that encourages employees to use artificial intelligence as much as possible. The memo stated that this practice is "deeply flawed" and "disconnected from what matters." It noted that an excessive focus on employee inputs rather than outputs could increase company costs and unnecessarily complicate certain tasks.

The company had previously shut down an internal tokenmaxxing leaderboard in May on the grounds that it encouraged the use of artificial intelligence without improving business results. Amazon announced that moving forward, it will reward employees who find creative ways to remove artificial intelligence technology from workflows in cases where it provides no benefit to existing tasks.