OpenAI's Own Agent Usage Exploded — Research Up 53x, Engineering Up 26x

An internal OpenAI report on agent economics shows token consumption surging across departments, while a parallel trend of secret 'ghost colleague' agent loops spreads through other companies.

OpenAI has reportedly open-sourced an internal economics report on its own use of AI agents, revealing dramatic growth in token consumption across departments, according to @beanwen. The figures are striking: the research department's agent usage grew 53-fold, customer service 32-fold, and engineering 26-fold. These are not pilot-program numbers — they describe agents becoming load-bearing infrastructure inside the company that builds them.

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