Amazon warns engineers against 'tokenmaxxing' and urges judgment in AI use
Amazon published a memo telling software engineers to use AI with judgment, arguing that counting tokens or lines of code is a misleading productivity measure.
By GennnAi··1 min read
In the memo, published Tuesday, a distinguished engineer at Amazon Stores says turning these metrics into targets raises costs and complexity. Engineers whose work gains nothing from AI should document it and tell their manager. Amazon scrapped its internal Kirorank leaderboard in May over concerns about needless computing costs. The company still keeps its adoption metrics, which it says correlate with results, to be used carefully.
Source: Fortune, published on October 28, 2026.