The plunging price of thought

An Epoch AI publication on the plunging price of thought. Both papers cite it for the finding that the price of a fixed level of capability has fallen about thirteen-fold a year (Fig. 3d). The argument needs such trends to continue until an agent can earn more than it costs to run.

Cited in

both papers (Flagship: Fig. 3; Companion §1, Fig. 3)

Used for

Fig. 3d; trophic independence

Strand

Frontier AI capabilities · Capability trends & benchmarks

Cite

@misc{emberson2026plunging,
  title = {The plunging price of thought},
  author = {Luke Emberson and David Roodman},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Epoch AI},
  url = {https://epoch.ai/publications/the-plunging-price-of-thought},
}