TL;DRDevs refuse to code without AI, but research shows it may slow them down. Amazon killed its token leaderboard. Uber blew its AI budget in four months.
In February 2026, AI research lab METR tried to repeat a groundbreaking study measuring how much time developers take to complete tasks with and without AI. It could not. Developers refused to participate because they would not work without AI, even for a limited number of tasks in a research setting.
The original 2025 study had produced a surprising result. Developers reported that AI made them more productive. The data showed the opposite: AI actually slowed them down because they spent extra time finding and fixing errors, steering the AI, and waiting for it to complete tasks.
Unable to replicate the experiment, METR published a survey in May instead. Developers self-reported that AI made them twice as valuable to their organisations. Recent evidence from multiple sources suggests that perception is wrong.
Amazon shut down an internal token-tracking leaderboard called Kirorank this week, the Financial Times reported. Employees were gaming it by using AI agents excessively and running up costs. The leaderboard proved that AI use does not automatically translate to increased productivity.
