Uber caps employee AI spending after blowing through budget in 4 months

Uber 在四个月内花光预算后，对员工 AI 使用支出设限

AI is getting expensive, and some companies are cutting back on usage in an attempt to moderate costs. That cohort includes Uber, which recently instituted internal usage caps as a way to cut down on its exorbitant AI spend. 人工智能正变得越来越昂贵，一些公司为了控制成本正在削减其使用量。Uber 便是其中之一，该公司最近实施了内部使用上限，旨在削减其高昂的 AI 开支。

Bloomberg reports that the company has instituted a new rule that places a monthly $1,500 cap per employee and per agentic coding tool, including Anthropic’s Claude Code or Cursor. The usage is trackable via an internal dashboard that each employee has access to, although — in certain cases — the caps can be exceeded with permission, the company says. 据彭博社报道，该公司已出台一项新规定，对每位员工使用每个智能编程工具（包括 Anthropic 的 Claude Code 或 Cursor）设定了每月 1,500 美元的上限。每位员工都可以通过内部仪表板追踪自己的使用情况。不过，该公司表示，在某些特定情况下，经批准后可以突破这一上限。

The news is perhaps not too surprising, since, in April, the company’s CTO revealed that the ridesharing giant had blown through its entire annual AI budget in a matter of four months. That appears to have occurred after Uber encouraged staff to use AI “as much as possible” and even ranked their internal usage competitively on internal leader boards, The Information previously reported. 这一消息或许并不令人意外，因为该公司首席技术官曾在四月份透露，这家网约车巨头在短短四个月内就花光了全年的 AI 预算。据《The Information》此前报道，这似乎是因为 Uber 此前曾鼓励员工“尽可能多地”使用 AI，甚至还在内部排行榜上对员工的使用情况进行排名竞争。

Uber’s COO, Andrew Macdonald, also recently cast doubt on AI’s productivity impact, noting during a podcast appearance that “it’s very hard to draw a line” between AI usage and new consumer features. Uber 首席运营官 Andrew Macdonald 最近也对 AI 的生产力影响表示怀疑，他在参加播客节目时指出，很难界定 AI 的使用与新消费者功能之间的直接联系。

Uber’s cutback raises a broader issue that the tech industry is currently facing: As enterprises pour money into AI, where exactly is the return on investment? Indeed, AI ROI has so far remained a largely theoretical phenomenon that everybody hopes will eventually materialize — although some companies are obviously getting a little restless while they wait. Uber 的削减开支举措引出了科技行业目前面临的一个更广泛的问题：随着企业向 AI 投入巨资，投资回报究竟在哪里？事实上，AI 的投资回报率迄今为止在很大程度上仍是一个理论上的现象，每个人都希望它最终能实现——尽管一些公司在等待的过程中显然已经变得有些坐立不安了。