Edward Conard

Top Ten New York Times Bestselling Author

  • “…reminds us that inequality sends a signal of what society lacks most, in America’s case, entrepreneurship and risk taking.” - Lawrence Lindsey, CEO, The Lindsey Group, former Director of the National Economic Council
  • “Unintended Consequences should be read by anyone who takes for granted the superiority of progressive taxation and has not thought carefully about the trade-offs involved.” - The New Republic
  • “…reminds us that inequality sends a signal of what society lacks most, in America’s case, entrepreneurship and risk taking.” - Lawrence Lindsey, CEO, The Lindsey Group, former Director of the National Economic Council
  • “…a comprehensive explanation of the modern economy.” - Julian Robertson, Founder, Tiger Management
  • “…a very valuable contribution.” - Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and director of the National Economic Council, president emeritus, Harvard University
  • “Unintended Consequences is full of substance, it is one of the must-read books of the year, and once I finish it I will be giving it a second read through right away.” - Tyler Cowen, Professor, George Mason University
  • “…challenges misconceptions that distort our economic debates.” - Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute
  • “Unintended Consequences provides a provocative interpretation of the causes of the global financial crisis and the policies needed to return to rapid growth. Whether you agree or not, this analysis is well worth reading.” - Nouriel Roubini, New York University; Chairman, Roubini Global Economics
  • “…a very valuable contribution.” - Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and director of the National Economic Council, president emeritus, Harvard University
  • “…a must-read for serious students of economic policy.” - Glenn Hubbard, Dean, Columbia Business School, and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
  • “Unintended Consequences offers deep and well-argued analyses on almost every issue.” - The New York Times
  • “Unintended Consequences is far smarter and more thought-provoking than most economics written for the general public” - Greg Mankiw, Harvard University, Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors
Upside of Inequality Oxford Unintended Consequences

AI Summary. Spending on the most expensive AI model from a leading provider has plateaued at 11% of total outlay, as cheaper, older models prove capable of handling most business tasks.

George Hammond Financial Times
Date Posted:

Ramp data suggest spending on Fable 5, Anthropic’s frontier model, has plateaued at ~11% of observed customers’ outlays on Anthropic’s tools. This is seemingly a behavior change – previously, corporate users defaulted to the most powerful available models.

Are businesses choosing cost efficiency over cutting-edge AI capabilities?

Core argument: Anthropic’s Fable 5 captures only 11% of corporate spending on Anthropic tools more than two months post-launch, breaking the historical pattern of enterprise users defaulting to a vendor’s most powerful model.

Spending on Fable 5, Anthropic’s largest and priciest model, has plateaued at only about 11% of overall outlay on the company’s tools, more than two months after its release, according to spending data from 70,000 companies collected by payments group Ramp. This breaks a pattern of corporate users defaulting to the most powerful models. Analysts and investors in Anthropic said the change was primarily driven by Fable’s high price and the fact that older models are capable of handling the bulk of business demands.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Anthropic’s Fable 5 captures only 11% of corporate spending on Anthropic tools more than two months post-launch, breaking the historical pattern of enterprise users defaulting to a vendor’s most powerful model.
  2. High pricing on Fable 5 drives corporate buyers toward older, cheaper Anthropic models that satisfy the bulk of business workloads, compressing revenue concentration at the premium tier.

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  • OpenAI and Anthropic In Price War as Chinese AI Rivals Gain Ground — AI model pricing is falling as competition intensifies, with leading models cutting token costs by up to 80%. Higher-priced models can deliver lower total costs by completing tasks in fewer tokens or attempts.
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