It Always Comes Back to the Money

At the risk of being Mr. MOTO (i.e., Master Of The Obvious), everything we do eventually comes back to the money: Money at dispute in litigation, money we have to pay for services or software, etc. This edition focuses on three articles that focus on the money - token pricing for AI, saving money in finding vulnerabilities over OpenAI, and suing companies for allegedly using AI to inflate prices.

A Token of AI's Appreciation

This article discusses how the providers of the major AI models are actively moving from flat-fee pricing to usage-based, token pricing, which is creating some challenges for IT budgets. The shift may also have disclosure implications for public companies, especially for Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) in quarterly and annual reports. Meredith Ervine discusses it in TheCorporateCounsel.net here: Artificial Intelligence: Disclosure Implications of the Move to Token Pricing

SAVE Me the Money

A research team has built a system that teaches AI agents to hunt for software bugs by writing the audit method down as plain text. An open-source model running an evolved playbook found real vulnerabilities at a higher rate than OpenAI’s commercial Codex Security product, 11.3% against 9.2% across 371 test cases. The whole teaching campaign ran on subscription accounts for one month and cost around $1,400. The system has already produced 28 confirmed vulnerability disclosures across 18 open-source projects, with one $1,500 bug bounty award. Mirko Zorz of Help Net Security has the story here: A $1,400 experiment in AI security auditing outperformed OpenAI’s Codex Security

Don't Steal My Money

At least that's what California consumers are alleging.  They've sued a range of gas station operators in California, including Albertsons, Speedway and Walmart, for allegedly using an AI-powered system to artificially raise prices. What's notable about this is that California last year passed AB 325, a law that prohibits the use of shared pricing algorithms to “restrain trade or commerce”. The plaintiffs allege the named companies used Kalibrate Fuel Pricing, a tool that allegedly requires gas station operators to hand over cost and volume data, so that Kalibrate can make automated pricing decisions. Sigh. Matthew Broersma covers the story in Silicon UK here: California Lawsuit Claims AI Inflated Petrol Prices

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-Doug Austin

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Jeffrey Brandt, Editor

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