Shadowing Practice: How AI Became More Expensive Than The Workers It Replaced - Learn English Speaking with Video
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In 2022, ChatGPT was released to the market.
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And since then, the growth of AI has been impressive.
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The creation of hyper -realistic images, code generation, and even the delegation of complex tasks.
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AI seemed capable of doing everything with great ease.
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And after seeing everything it was capable of, companies began adopting AI exponentially.
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They incorporated it into their processes and realized that it was extremely cheap.
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Bye!
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Precisely because of its low costs, AI also began to bring problems.
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"AI company called Anthropic is raising alarms tonight about AI's potential impact on employment that could soon be felt." Thousands of layoffs,
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team reductions, and massive displacement.
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Literally, AI was eliminating jobs across every industry.
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from roles in tech companies, to fast food chains, to fast food chains, AI was wiping out almost any type of job.
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It could perform the work of entire teams in just minutes, largely because it was much more efficient, but above all because it was cheaper to maintain.
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In recent months, a problem has started to emerge.
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AI is becoming very expensive.
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Because AI, maybe, is becoming too expensive to scale.
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Using open claw these days is like driving a Ferrari.
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So much so that Microsoft itself banned its own employees from using clawed code due to its high costs.
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So Microsoft starts canceling clawed code licenses.
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But this is not only happening at Microsoft.
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Uber.
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NVIDIA.
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Amazon and hundreds of other companies have reported similar cost problems, making it almost impossible even for top executives to justify such a high expense.
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Big tech is scrambling to slow down its use of AI.
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Major companies have already exhausted their annual budgets And some say it's getting more difficult to justify the costs.
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But if AI promised to be so cheap and efficient, How did it end up costing more than the workers it replaced?
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Although the birth of artificial intelligence dates back to the beginning of the 1950s, it was not until 2022 that this technology truly experienced a boom.
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It promised efficiency and solutions to complex problems with just one click.
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But most importantly, it promised to save companies a lot of money.
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From technology companies to fast food chains, every business began implementing it at an unprecedented speed.
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It was such a revolutionary technology that it could do the work of 10 people at one tenth of the price.
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Or, at least, That was what people were saying.
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"AI is a technology.
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for taking away your job and maybe eventually displacing human sovereignty over our own future.
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Starting in 2023, companies began not only encouraging, but also forcing their employees to use AI tools, causing demand for these models to grow uncontrollably.
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And the way companies measured their AI performance and usage was through tokens.
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Using a high number of tokens became somewhat of a status symbol among employees.
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proving that they were going above and beyond to meet key performance indicators.
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But there was a problem.
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After realizing this, employees began using these tokens successively simply to appear more efficient at the end of the month.
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This gave rise to what became known as token maxing.
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"Token max?
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Like, that's actually the coolest thing you can do now." "Token maxing
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and this new way of building." But token maxing is expensive.
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For text -based inquiries, the math is simple, with 750 words costing 1 ,000 tokens.
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And generating videos, images, code, and more can cost much more.
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By the end of 2025, token maxing began becoming popular among tech companies,
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making it increasingly common for software engineers to use AI even for insignificant tasks.
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But much of this popularity was driven by statements like these: "That $500 ,000 engineer, at the end of the year, I'm gonna ask him how much did you spend in tokens,
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and that person said $5 ,000, I will go ape something else." Yes.
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$250 ,000 worth of tokens, I am going to be deeply alarmed." Interestingly,
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NVIDIA's CEO, one of the companies benefiting the most from AI adoption, strongly encouraged all developers to use these tokens.
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The problem is that all this demand did not correspond to real demand but rather was artificially inflated.
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Believe it or not, Silicon Valley engineers are now being scored on how many AI tokens they use.
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The problem: that may end up inflating overall AI demand." At the same time,
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Shortages of electronic components needed for building data centers are causing many of these projects to be delayed.
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According to Bloomberg, nearly 50 % of all data center construction projects planned for 2026 in the US have been canceled
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or delayed but many of these constructions and plans were based on the enormous demand that AI companies were receiving.
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According to the Economic Times, demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to greatly exceed supply.
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The thing is
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that experts are now beginning to question how much of this demand actually comes from real usage
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and how much comes from inflated figures.
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So when a hyperscaler like Andy Jassy at Amazon in his annual letter this morning
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or that deal this morning tells Wall Street that demand is outstripping supply,
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you gotta ask how much of that is real enterprise adoption and how much is engineers juicing a leaderboard?
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But due to token maxing, the cancellation of data center construction projects, and the massive adoption of AI worldwide, the cost of those tokens has increased significantly.
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"Aught of concerns over the rising cost of artificial intelligence, it led to a major tech stock sell -off that dragged down the S &P and NASDAQ,
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which fell more than 500 points." According to Bloomberg Finance, The average cost of tokens from large language models, or LLMs, has more than doubled since 2025.
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In December of that year, the average cost was $1 .01 per million tokens,
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and by May 2026, that number had reached $2 .12 per million tokens.
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While this increase in price may seem insignificant, when taking into account the massive amount of tokens these companies use every day,
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it translates into tens of millions of dollars per month.
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use about $200 worth of tokens every week.
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50 weeks a year, that's 10 ,000 bucks in tokens.
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You have 40 ,000 employees, that's $400 million.
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You have 90 ,000 employees, that's $900 million.
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AT &T, for example, reported that it was consuming nearly 8 billion tokens every single day.
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Without a doubt, this has been incredibly profitable for Anthropic and OpenAI, the leading AI companies in the world today.
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According to Reuters, thanks to the adoption of AI agents at the enterprise level, Anthropic aims to nearly triple its annualized revenue in 2026.
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To put that number into perspective, In 2025, Anthropic ended the year with revenue of around $3 billion,
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and in 2026, that figure is expected to reach nearly $9 .6 billion.
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But as a result, employers are frequently blowing through their AI budgets, putting them in a situation where it's no longer clear that using AI is cheaper than hiring people.
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And AI companies are beginning to realize this.
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The AI bill has come due.
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Annual budgets blown through in weeks.
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And now companies are facing a choice nobody has ever had to make before.
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tokens or humans.
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An internal memo from a Microsoft executive vice president instructed engineers to stop using Anthropics AI coding tools.
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At first, Executives said it was to encourage the use of AI tools within the same ecosystem.
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such as GitHub Copilot, But later it was discovered
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that the main reason was the enormous costs generated by the use of Claude code.
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And Microsoft is not alone in this, as Fortune reports that other companies are also pulling back on AI usage.
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For example, Reuters reported that Meta consumed nearly 60 trillion tokens in a single month.
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That's roughly 900 million dollars worth of Anthropix tokens based on the firm's blended prices.
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If tech now costs what humans cost, every company in America is about to start asking which one to keep.
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But these extra costs are becoming a real headache for corporate finance departments.
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In fact, A Gartner survey found that three -quarters of the executives it polled expect technology budgets to increase this year,
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and nearly half estimate double -digit percentage increases.
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A sizeable chunk of that spending will go toward AI, which is expected to account for more than one -fifth of total enterprise technology spending by 2035.
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And the numbers prove it.
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Global spending on AI agents and models is rising at concerning rates.
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By 2027, spending on this technology is estimated to reach $680 billion, more than double what companies spent in 2025.
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But these estimates were made using the current average costs of these tools, and considering that both and OpenAI are still not profitable.
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they are operating at a loss.
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But that is about to change because in the coming months, both companies are expected to go public and will have to answer to shareholders.
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Therefore, they will inevitably increase the prices of using tokens from their AI tools and agents in order to generate profits.
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In other words, the amount of money companies are currently paying for tokens will multiply exponentially.
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So, if the cost of using these tools continues to rise, of tokens.
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The thing is, This is not a prediction.
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In fact, this is already happening.
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Maybe human labor will be more cost efficient after all.
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Uber and Microsoft are starting to second -guess aggressive AI adoption.
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That's partly because the cost of using AI can exceed the cost of human employees.
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According to Reuters, the current cost of running AI agents is already comparable to the cost of human labor
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and in some cases, it is already more expensive.
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While in coding tasks, the use of AI is undeniably cheaper.
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In data entry tasks, the difference is minimal.
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But in others, such as call centers, the cost of human labor is actually cheaper.
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Although AI companies have so far been able to subsidize the real cost of tokens due to generous and abundant funding, that appears to be coming to an end.
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According to the Wall Street Journal, enterprise customers are beginning to question the true return on these investments.
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And the reality is that with the public listings of Anthropic and OpenAI, combined with investor pressure to see returns and electronic component shortages,
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this creates the perfect formula for token costs to continue increasing.
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And if maintaining these models is already expensive today, There will come a point when companies start asking themselves whether it makes sense to pay more for a simple tool.
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than what they used to pay many of the workers they laid off.
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Context & Background
The video titled "How AI Became More Expensive Than The Workers It Replaced" delves into the rapid advance of artificial intelligence following the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. It highlights how companies worldwide began adopting AI for its remarkable efficiency and low operational costs. As businesses integrated AI into their workflows, they initially enjoyed significant financial benefits. However, by 2023, a paradox emerged where the cost of utilizing AI tools began to rise, leading to unexpected financial burdens for many firms. The discussion raises thought-provoking questions about the balance between technology and employment, making it a pertinent topic for anyone interested in industry trends and economic implications.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “AI is capable of doing everything with great ease.” - This phrase illustrates the extensive capabilities of AI in various sectors.
- “It's becoming difficult to justify the costs.” - A useful expression for discussing financial concerns in a professional setting.
- “The birth of artificial intelligence dates back to the beginning of the 1950s.” - A historical reference that can enrich conversations about technology's evolution.
- “Token maxing has become a status symbol.” - This phrase reflects the trends in workplaces relating to performance metrics.
- “AI could eliminate jobs across every industry.” - A critical statement that could spark discussions about technology's impact on employment.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively practice your English through the content of this video, follow these steps involving shadowing:
- Choose a Segment: Pick a short section of the transcript that resonates with you. Focus on the parts discussing AI's impact on employment.
- Listen Carefully: Play the section and listen to the speaker’s pronunciation and intonation. Concentrate on their rhythm and speed.
- Repeat Aloud: Use the shadow speech technique by repeating what you hear, mimicking the speaker’s tone and pace. This practice will boost your fluency.
- Analyze Vocabulary: Take note of key phrases like “it's becoming difficult to justify the costs” and practice saying them in various contexts, which can assist in IELTS speaking practice.
- Record Yourself: After practicing shadowing, record yourself speaking the same phrases or segments. Compare your pronunciation with the original to spot areas for improvement.
By incorporating these techniques into your learning routine alongside resources like "learn English with YouTube," you can enhance your speaking skills while staying current with industry discussions. This structured approach will also facilitate mastering the art of shadowspeaks, helping you to engage in more fluent and confident conversations.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was released · be felt · was driven |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has been · has started · have reported |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.