Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has suggested that AI tokens be given to engineers as an incentive in addition to their salary. These are the units of language of AI, which are used instead of getting work done by AI.
What are AI tokens? (AI Tokens)
According to the report of Times of India, to understand AI tokens in easy language, these are the ‘units of language’ of AI. Actually, whenever we talk to AI or ask any question, it does not understand our conversation directly, it breaks it into pieces. Those pieces are called tokens.
When we talk to an AI (like ChatGPT or Gemini), it does not understand our words directly, but breaks them into small pieces. These pieces are called tokens.
Now understand with example:
If you give the command to ChatGPT or Gemini – ‘Hello, how are you?’, the AI will see it like this: (Hello) (,) (How) (How) (?) i.e. it will break your question into 5 different tokens. According to the information, more tokens are spent on asking questions in English, whereas less tokens can be spent on asking questions in Hindi.
Importance of AI tokens
At present, AI tokens have great importance. Actually, any AI model has a limit and remembers a limited number of tokens. This is called contact window. If the token limit is reached then AI starts forgetting old things. Companies providing AI services give tokens to their users which are spent on asking questions.
AI companies take money on the basis of tokens
Nowadays top AI companies take money from their users on the basis of tokens. According to the report, OpenAI charges $15 per 1 million tokens for its most advanced model. It is understood in this way that when an engineer uses a tool like Claude Code of AI company Anthropic, every line of code is used by the token present in his account. According to the report, an engineer used so much AI tokens for his project that his bill reached 10 thousand dollars.
Engineers are asking, how many AI tokens will they get?
AI tokens are not new. Engineers who use them are now asking about AI tokens. According to the report, Thibault Sottiaux, engineering lead at OpenAI’s Codex, told in an interview last month that job interview candidates were asking about this. According to the information, some OpenAI employees are spending more than 10 billion tokens every week.
About the authorPrem TripathiPrem Tripathi is Assistant Editor at Times Online. He has been in journalism for the last 14 years and has been covering the technology beat for the last 10 years. He has worked in big newspapers of the country, Times, Amar Ujala, Hindustan. Has written on technology for many years in NDTV Gadgets 360. He has experience in tech-gadget news as well as gadget reviews, tips tricks, industry stories, interviews. He has been writing on emerging tech beats like Artificial Intelligence (AI News), Internet of Things, Defense Tech. He has made videos for Gadgets 360. After B.Sc. from Kumaon University, Nainital, he has done Masters in Mass Communication from Makhanlal Chaturvedi University. The book ‘Hai Gau’ written by him was published by Amar Ujala Foundation.… read more