<
https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/03/12/ai-companies-try-to-pay-staff-in-ai-tokens-not-money/>
"This week’s big headline is: “Silicon Valley is buzzing about this new idea:
AI compute as compensation“. Uh huh.
The idea is that instead of getting paid dollars to work for an AI company …
you get paid in AI tokens. The units that the AI vendor charges API access in.
You have to use these tokens in your job, too.
This is not in any way a “new” idea. It’s company scrip — a company’s own
made-up money that you can only spend in the company store. Company scrip was
always just a scam, and paying workers in company scrip has been illegal in the
US since 1938. But you know these guys don’t care.
Other companies would love to pay workers in AI tokens too! And not in, y’know,
money.
Tech-illiterate CEOs and venture capitalists keep talking about AI tokens like
they’re a commodity you can pile up. Even though tokens aren’t commensurable at
all between different models.
The key point is that they love the idea of printing their own money. It’s the
word “token.” They want AI tokens to be treated like crypto tokens. Something
you can print out of thin air, then exchange like it’s money.
This idea was most recently floated by Thibault Sottiaux at OpenAI:
I am increasingly asked during candidate interviews how much dedicated
inference compute they will have to build with Codex.
So firstly, I don’t believe anyone’s asking that. But OpenAI president Greg
Brockman retweeted Sottiaux. So this idea is the OpenAI corporate line.
AI bros have previously promoted Universal Basic Income once the AI singularity
comes — and not a moment before. Even though we could do this tomorrow — the
main barrier to a reasonable welfare system is whiny billionaires who hate
being taxed. Specifically, these guys."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
