AI, Only for I: When Shared Abundance Becomes Scarcity

A Generous Gesture Meets Reality

When I read earlier today that Uber had burnt through their AI budget for the year 2026 in just four months, I did wonder whether that burn rate had produced commensurate productivity gains to have made it worthwhile. According to the CTO, the headline figure suggests otherwise; else, it might have been less concerning. [Quartz: Uber's COO says the company's AI spending is getting harder to justify]

In the same vein, news has emerged that Microsoft is scaling back internal Claude Code licences, indicating that reliance on this toolset has burnt through budgets and forecasts to become an unsustainable revenue drain. [MSN: Microsoft retreats from Claude Code as AI costs soar]

My Poe Setup

I use Poe as my interface to a broad range of bots, grouped under official, budget-friendly, search, image, video, audio, and programming categories. My monthly subscription comes with 1,000,000 points and, despite my usage, I would consider myself a tad frugal. I barely use 75,000 points before the month is out.

For value, access to premium services across many platforms through one interface is, for me, the best deal you can get in AI access and provision. There might be better offers out there, but I am quite satisfied with what I have been using for over two years.

Sharing the Largesse

In demonstrating the features of Poe a few days ago, I discovered that I could share my points with up to 99 others: family, friends, or colleagues. I assumed such sharing would carry the kind of usage and frugality of one gentle owner of a vintage car, with little mileage on the clock, and much to enjoy if the pleasure of driving were shared with another.

How wrong I was. In the space of three days, an invitee had already burnt through more than half of the monthly allocation. At that rate, there would be no points left to do anything in another two days. I was in shock. People are doing things with AI bots that it seems I am yet to discover, even when I think my own use of this facility is quite involved.

A Cold Blast of Reality

What to do? I shared a graphic illustration of the spending activity with the invitee, along with a note about how the burn rate puts the idea of fair use into precarity. Beyond that, sharing this largesse based on my frugality cannot be representative of its usage in reality.

Poe only shows the daily usage of points of those with whom the points have been shared, and we all have full access to the pool. As the administrator, I have two options: to share or to remove. Whilst I have not opted for the nuclear option, my enthusiasm for generosity has met a cold blast of the actualité.

Weighing the Options

I could purchase add-on points that are usable for one year, and are not refundable, transferable, or redeemable for cash. However, I want to hope we are not at a crisis point, just a spot of bother and concern.

What is not helpful is the sudden realisation that what looked like abundance could easily become scarce, like a swarm of locusts swooping down on a field close to harvest season. That is devastation on a grand scale; it is the kind of mindset one can ill afford to have.

The thought that I must monitor the points I have left, out of concern that my modest subscription will not last the month, is not the prospect I planned for. Then again, I cannot even share this with Brian, my husband, because the service is not available in Zimbabwe. What luck!

A Google NotebookLM AI Podcast on this blog

Making much of my Sundays

My church, a community

My church, the cathedral in my city, serves as a community where I find fellowship and friendship. While I have been a steward, I have not resumed that function since I went for treatment, my energy levels are much better now, not at the stage where I could be an effective steward.

The more public activity is when one does one of the readings, the last time I was scheduled to do the reading, in December, I had to give up my place as I was going to be away in Cape Town.

The first version of the rota published a few weeks ago had me scheduled to read the only reading for Palm Sunday, I carried that in my bosom until I reviewed the updated rota, a more prominent person had supplanted me.

At church with improvements

Whether I had my natural voice back or not, I was determined that I would attend whatever readings I was scheduled for with electronic amplification for my frail voice. Each service I attend shows some improvements, such as not needing to use the conveniences until after the service or being able to fully participate in the standing parts of the sung eucharist.

The more obvious one is that I can walk the distance from home to church and back, whereas before I travelled, I needed assistance because I lacked the strength to do so.

The other Sunday, I arrived as the processional hymn was being sung, it is quite unusual for me to arrive late to church so I sat in a different place close to the children’s corner. What I racket they made; it was impossible to concentrate. Then last week, the Racial Justice Sunday had York visiting, I sat in the same row as his wife and the dean’s spouse. As in the Archbishop of York.

How things are developing

The row behind us as a child and his parents, they chuntered through the whole service, my backward glances did nothing to moderate the disturbance. The same garrulous troupe was there today, I do not know what informed them to move towards the more adequate children’s section before the service commenced.

One of the hymns had quite a discordant tune. I could not follow it until the fourth verse, and it was still a struggle. I sing all alright, but I do lag in the recitations and singing, too. In the end, I plumped for the decaffeinated coffee. Since decaffeinated tea is rarely available, I had to get on a bus for a 30-minute ride to a big supermarket to replenish my stock of decaffeinated Earl Grey tea.

The last Village Church service I met in the middle of the homily, my nap ended a few minutes before the start, and just as I thought of taking a rain check, I got a message from a friend asking if I was attending. I dressed up and rushed out; it was just around the corner from my place.

The Lord’s Prayer in Yoruba, I wrote that out this morning with all the essential diacritical marks, it is what I recite when it comes to the time for prayer. I might be doing that on a recording of it for a week of the recitations of the Lord’s Prayer in other languages at a church event in May.

Church is a community I enjoy.

Àdúrà Olúwa

Baba wa tí ńbẹ ní ọ̀run,
Kí á bọ̀wọ̀ fún orúkọ rẹ,
Kí ìjọba ìrẹ dé,
Ìfẹ̀ẹ tìrẹ ni kí á ṣe ní aiyé,
Bí wọ́n ti ńṣe ní ọ̀run,
Fún wa l'óúnjẹ òjọ́ wa l'óòní,
Dárí ẹ̀ṣẹ̀ wa jì wá,
Bí a tí ń dárí ẹ̀ṣẹ̀ ji àwọn tí ó ṣẹ̀ wá,
Má fà wá sínú ìdánwò,
Ṣùgbón gbà wá lọ́wọ́ bìlísì,
Nítorí ìjọba ni tìrẹ, agbára ni tìrẹ, ògo ni tìrẹ,
Láí Láí,
Àmín.

Lost in the stewardship of expectations

Stewards on a ship of life

We are stewards, people with responsibilities to care for, employed to look after, appointed to supervise arrangements, engaged to manage or look after things.

In our stewardship, we cater to people and events, we put things in order, we manage resources and things, we ensure that arrangements follow some process or procedure.

Yet, stewardship can extend to the management of ideas, time, and expectations. The management of ideas which would come from a range of thoughts can inform decisions and direction, see one take up opportunities or even chart the course of destiny.

The management of time is one of first the awareness of its presence, the marshalling of things to fit schedules and procedures, maybe arrange meetings, even it might just be the plain knowledge of it for the purposes of punctuality which is the fundamental expression of consideration, courtesy, and respect to others. It is always appreciated.

The stewardship of expectations

The more nebulous one is the stewardship of expectations. Expectations are not usually set out clearly, as aims and goals to aspire to. People just expect that from influences, association, observation, education, or plain common sense, combined or discretely, that those of whom much is expected do not need to be addressed on the matter apart from receiving a commendation.

Yet, in the stewardship of expectations, many of us fall short, short of the goals we have set for ourselves or of the standards we are expected to demonstrate without direction, instruction, or tutelage. Falling short of expectations leads to disappointment and sometimes dents the structure of trust which could defeat the goals of enterprise.

We can fall and claw back up

Expectations, the many for which others harbour regret, for what could have been, if only other things were equal. Our imperfections laid bare before those we have not pleased, the promise we make to both ourselves and others to do better, sometimes without a clear knowledge of whether incapacity, indolence, or carelessness informed our plight. We could be more soulsearching and introspective.

In this, one should beware of becoming sanctimonious, for the danger of being consumed with hubris looms large. We as sinners seek sainthood that could be out of our grasp, but we strive on regardless. In our humanity is the salvation of the helpless. In our humility is the recognition of true remorse.

In the end, for the question asked in the measurement of expectations, nothing but honest answers will suffice, to vacillate is to infuriate. Matters will not be helped if we cannot candidly own up to our failings.

Thought Picnic: The stewardship of the Lent

Lent some things

We sometimes do not realise that we are entrusted with a lifetime responsibility of stewardship, the stewardship of time, the stewardship of resources, the stewardship of relationships, the stewardship of purpose and by consequence the stewardship of life.

In a moment of reflection, I thought about the Christian season of Lent, the preparation towards Easter in the church calendar that traditionally pertains to prayer and fasting, a call to restraint, the abandonment of excess, where penitence, self-denial, self-examination, and study is supposed to bring us back to a reckoning of why we are here, for what purpose, and whether we are living to the fulness of our potential.

Lent to know

Yet, the matter of stewardship in my mind derives from a reassessment of what Lent is, for fasting is not something I have developed a propensity for, medical conditions would probably exempt me. Some restraint I have had, maybe moderation or denial, self-examination requires a bit more work even if my best friend says I critique myself too harshly, I hope it makes for having more consideration of my position before I address others.

Then, I have no issue with hypocrisy for as I have said before, it is a knowledge thing that requires action from both parties. If the person with a beam in their eye can see another with a speck in their eye, the decent thing is to inform rather than remain silent. With information, both can probably help remove the speck and the beam from each other’s eyes to see clearly. What would be wrong is to sit with vision obstructed in self-satisfactory contentment.

Lent to do

When Lent as a noun indicating a season in which we might do things is converted into a verb as if we are lent something with which we are to engage in a profitable venture, stewardship begins to make sense. For that, the time we are lent to use must not be wasted, the resources we are lent by providences must be used wisely, the relationships we are lent by accident, association, or engagement must be cultivated with care and consideration and we are lent the opportunity of purpose, we must strive to see it through.

I would be the first to say that much of what I have been lent I have not judiciously used. In my moments of reflection, I wonder about what I could have done better for different outcomes. I try not to indulge in excessive self-flagellation, there is enough regret and ruefulness in the world. My hope is to have learnt something from my failings and find a better result.

Lent to discern

Indeed, there are times I wish I knew things long before I suffered needlessly, that little voice that speaks almost like a prognosticator needs to get more timbre and volume, my clogged inner ears need a good de-waxing too.

The circumstances are testing, the immediacy of need can easily defeat the will, still, one must stand the test of faith, trust, and service to enter into the ministry of angels. Angels as providence, fortune, blessing and grace.

I hope to have made the best stewardship of the things I have been lent, most importantly, the heart of a man who means so much to me, my love is true and my desire is keen for our hopes to be real. That is just the beginning of even greater expectations.