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Artificial intelligence is getting cheaper by the day.
This week, OpenAI released GPT-5.6 to the public and SpaceXAI launched Grok 4.5, a frontier-class model priced at a fraction of what comparable tools cost just eighteen months ago. The median cost per million AI tokens has fallen from roughly five dollars in early 2024 to under one dollar today. Powerful tools that were once available only to large companies with serious infrastructure budgets are now accessible to almost anyone with a credit card and a browser.
At first glance, that sounds like a technology story.
It is actually a human story.
For most of history, information was scarce. Knowledge was scarce. Expertise was scarce. Access to all three was a genuine advantage. You had it or you did not, and that gap shaped careers, companies, and entire industries.
Today those things are becoming abundant. Need a summary? AI can generate one. Need a first draft, a research brief, a block of code, or a strategic brainstorm? AI can help with all of it, faster and cheaper than ever before.
The question is no longer whether we can access intelligence. The question is what we choose to do with it.
That changes everything.
When something becomes abundant, something else becomes scarce and therefore valuable. When information became abundant, attention became valuable. When communication became abundant, trust became valuable. Now that intelligence is becoming abundant, judgment is becoming valuable.
Knowing what actually matters. Knowing which opportunities deserve your energy and which distractions to ignore. Knowing when to move fast and when to slow down. Knowing when to trust automation and when human experience needs to lead.
These are not AI skills. They are human skills. And they are becoming harder to find precisely because the tools around them are becoming easier to use.
This week also brought a reminder of what happens when powerful tools are used without judgment. Researchers at Sysdig published documentation of JadePuffer, what they describe as the first ransomware attack carried out entirely by an autonomous AI agent, no human operator required at any stage of the attack. The specific details matter less than the principle. Powerful tools amplify intent. They can create value at scale or create damage at scale. The tool itself is neutral. What you build with it is not.
Technology does not eliminate responsibility. It increases it. That is true for organizations. It is true for leaders. It is true for individuals.
The people who thrive in the next decade may not be the ones with access to the best tools. Most people will have access to similar tools. The difference will be how they use them.
Use the tools. Learn the tools. Benefit from the tools.
But do not outsource your judgment to them.
The new scarcity is not intelligence.
The new scarcity is wisdom. And wisdom is still a human skill.
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Signals to Watch
The median cost per million tokens dropped from roughly $5 in early 2024 to under $1 today, driven by competition from new entrants and price pressure across every major provider. This is one of the most significant economic shifts in the history of software, and most people have not fully absorbed what it means yet.
JadePuffer is the first documented ransomware attack run entirely by an autonomous AI agent, according to Sysdig's Threat Research Team. It chained reconnaissance, credential theft, lateral movement, and database encryption with no human direction at any step. Powerful tools amplify intent. That works in both directions.
Policymakers are paying closer attention to how AI affects everyday people, including older adults, healthcare access, and consumer protection. As of mid-2026, states have passed laws requiring human oversight of AI in insurance claims, restricting AI in mental health settings, and prohibiting AI systems from misrepresenting themselves as licensed professionals. The governance conversation is no longer abstract. It is showing up in state legislatures, federal agencies, and international bodies, and it will shape what organizations can build and deploy in the years ahead.
The future never arrives all at once. It shows up first as signals.
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