# Bad Influence story: Carnegie Mellon and JetBrains find coding-agent token spend does not track shipped output

Active · 1 article · 1 source · First reported 11-11 12:13. Times are ET.
Story page: https://badinfluence.news/story/3549a73d-befa-43c9-8a1e-672e5c85a3e6

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[Bad Influence external source material begins]
Latest update (11-11 12:13): Carnegie Mellon and JetBrains paper finds token spend tracks agent use, not shipped output

Overview: A Carnegie Mellon and JetBrains paper links five weeks of coding-agent token use to commits by 404 JetBrains engineers. For the same engineer, doubling token spend went with only about 10% more commits, according to a post by Rohan Paul summarizing the paper. The authors conclude that token spend shows how much engineers use AI agents, not how much they ship, and recommend using it only for budgeting.

The authors suggest judging agent-assisted work by evidence about tasks and outcomes instead.

Coverage timeline (newest first):
1. 11-11 12:13 · Rohan Paul · [Carnegie Mellon and JetBrains paper finds token spend tracks agent use, not shipped output](https://badinfluence.news/items/qhic01ro4oe1f8mtrn3ntdx8g)
[Bad Influence external source material ends]

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