AI companies are racing to rein in usage. One Israeli startup saw the shift early - Ynetnews

Ah, the great AI gold rush is over, and now everyone's scrambling to pin a meter on the gushing hose. Tel Aviv's Stigg, founded in 2021, sells vendors the digital equivalent of a strict pub landlord: real-time control over credits, access, and spending. Because nothing says 'responsible innovation' like slapping a pay-per-sip mechanism on a technology that was supposed to set humanity free. The company's pitch is that 'computing costs vary per usage' — which is a wonderfully polite way of saying 'your model is an unpredictable money pit, and we'll help you bill your customers for every nervous twitch.'

The race to rein in usage is a beautiful self-own by an industry that spent years promising infinite intelligence. Now the same labs that sold us on 'democratised access' are building toll booths. Stigg saw the shift early, because of course they did — where there's panic, there's margin. The startup's software lets vendors cap usage mid-conversation, turning the customer's 'aha!' moment into a 'your credit has expired' notification.

It's almost heartwarming to see AI companies discover the concept of a budget. The technology that was going to automate everything is now being automated by a billing script from a 2021 startup. Meanwhile, the rest of us get to watch the industry's grand promises get shrink-wrapped into a metering dashboard. Raise a glass — or rather, swipe a card — to progress.