The Economics of AI

Why Smarter. Smarter charges every token to the user, application and account that used it, and its budgets turn spending limits into enforced controls. Business, economics and management students can measure the real cost of an AI application, rather than estimate it, and weigh it against quality.

Read. Cost Accounting, Smarter Budget, Smarter Provider.

Exercises.

• Run the same set of tasks on three models from different providers. Record the cost, the latency and a quality score for each, and recommend one.

• Write a business case for an AI application: what it costs per user per month in model charges and in infrastructure, and what it saves. The infrastructure figures in Kubernetes for Running Applications at Scale are a realistic starting point.

• Design a budget policy for a department: who gets how much, what happens at the limit, and who is warned before it is reached.

Course plans. Three complete, ready-to-teach plans, each with a schedule, graded assignments and rubrics, two capstone projects, recommended texts, further study and technical prerequisites. See Course Formats and Grading for what the formats have in common.

• Classroom bootcamp: 8 hours
• Two-week online course: 6 hours
• Four-week online course: 12 hours

See the Smarter Instructor Guide to install Smarter and set up a class.