Apple imposes tighter daily limits on its staff's use of AI services

Apple is limiting how much its employees may spend each day on AI models, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources. For some engineers the daily cap dropped from 300 to 200 dollars in October, and according to the report it could fall further to 100 dollars. MacRumors and Macworld picked up the report.

Many departments outside engineering already had a limit of 100 dollars a day; 25 dollars is being considered for some teams. Engineers get the largest budgets because AI help with programming, such as debugging code, consumes many tokens. Some teams are being asked to use cheaper models or to switch to AI that runs on the device itself. Anyone who needs more can request an exemption.

The savings are expected to be modest, as the sources say few employees used their full 300 dollars. Even so, the measure, together with the use of outside productivity consultants in some divisions, is fuelling fears of a restructuring. John Ternus, CEO since 1 September, wants less hierarchy so the company can do more with fewer people, according to MacRumors. Macworld notes that Ternus has publicly praised AI and that the first cut may have been planned while Tim Cook was still in charge.