July 29, 2026

CHANGE: AI tokens could become the kilowatt-hour of the AI age.

Earlier this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared, “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”

Many other AI companies seem to be betting on a similar future. If that vision actually comes to be, then “AI tokens” may break out of the world of nerdy tech and econ conversations and become a much more familiar part of our lives. The number of AI tokens businesses and consumers use could even become one of the defining measures of a new industrial age — the AI equivalent of the kilowatt-hour for electricity: the standard way we measure and pay for AI usage.

Think of tokens as the meter running in the background every time you use AI. Every time an AI model reads your prompt, writes an answer, or does a task, that work is measured in tokens. They are the tiny chunks of text and other data that AI models read and generate. In general, the more work a model does, the more tokens it typically processes.

While AI companies still tend to offer flat-rate subscriptions to average consumers, they’re increasingly charging businesses and developers based on the number of tokens they use. At the same time, companies, particularly in the tech sector, have been using AI in more and more of their work. As their AI usage has soared, many businesses have discovered just how expensive token-based pricing can become.

AI upends the old software business model of basically zero marginal cost per additional unit sold. Tokens are much cheaper than they used to be, but each one still requires compute to generate. Not sure how that shakes out, but it’s difficult to imagine demand for chips and energy slacking off any time soon.

Posted at 9:38 am by Stephen Green

LOL, CHRIS CILLIZZA:

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): To be fair, that’s what they pay him for.

Posted at 9:22 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: It’s a Shame We Can’t Jail Dems for Torturing the Truth. “I run into that a lot here in my deep blue pinko commie neighborhood. There are ‘Stop the kidnappings! Report ICE…’ signs up all over the place. Of course, ICE agents aren’t kidnapping anyone. Leftists are incapable of dealing with anything intellectually, all they can do is rile up the low-info base with nonsensical emotional hysteria.”

Posted at 9:07 am by Stephen Green

NOVEMBER PREVIEW: Nine Republicans seeking Graham’s Senate seat.

Twelve attempted to get on the ballot; three were not certified by the state party.

Glenda Gail Parker and Danny Ford II, son of the former legendary football coach at Clemson, each filed before Tuesday’s deadline to a list led by Graham’s sister, two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a former congressman and governor who briefly ran for president. Ford, however, was not certified and will not appear on the ballot.

Graham died July 11, two days after his 71st birthday, and would have been seeking a fifth term.

Per state law, the filing period is one week, followed by the primary two weeks later on Aug. 11. If a runoff is needed, meaning no candidate gets 50% of the vote plus one, it happens Aug. 25.

The successful candidate in the primary will take Graham’s spot on the ballot on Nov. 3. Dr. Annie Andrews, a Charleston pediatrician, is the Democratic opponent in November and is joined on the ballot by Libertarian Kasie Whitener.

Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nardone, to finish his term until the 120th Congress is seated in January. The 62-year-old Graham filed Friday and is backed for the six-year term by second-term Republican President Donald Trump.

Stay tuned…

Posted at 8:36 am by Stephen Green

I SEE DEAD PEOPLE:

Posted at 8:22 am by Ed Driscoll

VIGILANTISM IS MAN’S NATURAL STATE…:

…and we return to it when the authorities that were supposed to supplant it with something better fail.

Posted at 8:20 am by Stephen Green

WAIT, DO WE WANT A STRONGER GERMAN MILITARY?

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

BREAKING: ICE performs basic ICE functions, film at 11.

You should probably rate the Community Note as Helpful: “That’s how visas work. Once expired, the holder is required to get a new one to reenter.”

Posted at 7:39 am by Stephen Green

SUPPLY, MEET DEMAND: Ukrainian drone boat deal to build in US could be ‘one of the most consequential partnerships.’

The Ukrainian company responsible for developing and manufacturing an autonomous drone boat used to sink several Russian navy warships has agreed to a deal with an American company to produce them in the United States for the U.S. military.

UFORCE produces the family of Magura drone boats, formally known as unmanned surface vessels, and it has become “one of the most capable platforms for [Ukraine’s] naval dominance of the Black Sea,” Sean Plankey, the company’s Chief Executive Officer for the U.S., told the Washington Examiner.

Ukrainian forces have used Magura drone boats to sink more than a dozen Russian warships and to shoot down Russian aircraft and helicopters as well. Between Ukraine’s use of the Magura USV and other drone boats, they have forced much larger and more expensive Russian warships to retreat from the Black Sea. They’ve also hit oil tankers and bridges.

The company came to a deal earlier this month with ReconCraft, an American-based boat manufacturer, to produce these vessels domestically.

Assuming Ukraine survives this war, they’ll end up a contracting powerhouse.

Posted at 7:34 am by Stephen Green

“MESSAGE: I CARE,” THE NEXT GENERATION. Braindead Politician Accidentally Reads AI Slop That Someone Left in His Speech: “Here’s a More Natural, Flowing Version of That Section That Reads Like a Legislative Speech.”

AI chatbots and politicians who aren’t even pretending to try anymore are a match made in heaven.

Exhibit A: Canadian lawmaker Bill Oliver, who made a strange, cyborgian digression in a speech addressing the New Brunswick legislature last month.

“Public confidence in the office of an advocate matters,” Oliver intoned, before offering a bizarre non sequitur.

“Here’s a more natural, flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points,” he added.

Oliver, in a distinctly 2026 twist, had accidentally read a prompt from an AI chatbot. Credit where credit’s due: he did it without blinking an eye, betraying either some serious stage composure or that he didn’t even notice the error, half-asleep as he sounded while mumbling through the machine-amalgamated pablum.

In any case, members of the New Brunswick subreddit, understandably, weren’t impressed after people began noticing the error this week.

“If there are no consequences for this, then we hold our high schoolers to a higher standard than our elected officials,” one commenter fumed.

“If he was a lawyer, he’d be sanctioned,” another wrote. “Why should it be any different for an elected representative?”

Others lamented the “depressing” state of affairs Oliver’s lazy AI slip-up evinced, using words like “grim” and “idiocracy.” There were multiple calls for him to resign.

As Charles Krauthammer wrote in 2012:

George H. W. Bush, Romney-like in aloofness, was once famously handed a staff cue card that read: “Message: I care.” That was supposed to be speech guidance. Bush read the card. Out loud.

Not surprisingly, he lost to Bill Clinton, a man who lives to care, who feels your pain better than you do — or at least makes you think so. In politics, that’s a trivial distinction.

Not surprisingly, (P)resident Biden had a similar gaffe in 2024:

If only some staffer had secretly snuck a “Madagascar” into Oliver’s AI prompt:

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll

EVERY INSTITUTION HAS BEEN CORRUPTED:

Posted at 7:10 am by Glenn Reynolds