Both Ends of the AI Candle

A standard candle has two ends, of course.

One end is for burning, and the other connects it to the earth. We have an idiom about using that connection end for burning.

AI gives us two levels at which we can burn both ends of that candle.

The first is us.

For people with ideas, or maybe just under pressure, AI makes it easy to burn both ends. Just get another agent running. Open another tab. More ideas. More instructions. More.

It’ll happen if you let it. The franticicity. There’s a reason why we, as humans, need one end of that candle firmly connected to the earth.

The second is AI itself.

Can AI get frantic? Can it work too hard?

I’ve seen it get confused. I’ve seen it cross paths and step on other agents doing work for me. I’ve seen it get into the death spiral. But that’s more of a me problem than an it problem. Poor instructions and expectations. That looks a lot like a standard management problem. People and agents both respond to better management.

There’s also the token budget. AI runs out of tokens. Burning both ends means more tokens, which means budget overflow faster. That’s generically a money problem. More money fixes it.

Then there are the big picture concerns. Power. Water. Noise. Real estate. The more we have AI burn both ends, the more we need and get of each of these. These are the “should we?” questions that rightfully are front and center in our culture right now.

I think AI can get frantic and work too hard also, but maybe not in the same way we can.

I’m starting to think burning both ends eventually burns us, even with AI.