The point being made above is that API pricing is calculated... somehow... seemingly arbitrarily. Possibly untethered to the infrastructure costs entirely: which would be the basis of any 'value', however that holds the labor theory of value, which isn't accurate either. So how do you accurately price these tokens at all (other than through price-discovery: which is slow, messy and fuzzy)?
Like anything else in the economy: at the point where enough customers can pay you, and not enough will go to the cheaper competition.
> (other than through price-discovery: which is slow, messy and fuzzy)
I notice a distinct lack of reading or comprehension (from everyone around me now, not just this comment) which worries me. I worry if LLM's are to blame. No one reads anymore...
I looked up one ~1,000 page econ textbook, and it does not seem to mention price "discovery", or at least the only uses of the word "discovery" were about things like a scientific/oil discovery [2].
"Even high-achieving students demonstrate relatively lower understanding of economics compared with other subjects." [1]
[1] https://www.carolinajournal.com/opinion/why-americans-flunk-...
[2] https://assets.openstax.org/oscms-prodcms/media/documents/pr...
Or are you saying that Anthropic is determining that cost per million arbitrarily?
If so, it'd be like asking to explain why things fall on the ground other than through gravity. Companies pick the price they think the market will bear, and adjust based on new information.