Monologue: Everyone Suddenly Cares About AI ROI
5/29/202612 min
In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron runs you through how AI’s move to token-based billing has revealed that absolutely nobody has a way of measuring AI’s ROI - and how these massive costs might finally burst the bubble.
Companion newsletter:
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-revenge-of-the-business-idiot/
Axios: AI sticker shock hits corporate America https://www.axios.com/2026/05/28/ai-spending-roi-enterprise-costs
Uber COO story: https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-coo-andrew-macdonald-ai-token-spending-harder-justify-2026-5
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.
Jonas Brothers0:03
[upbeat music] Hey guys, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We've created our own podcast called- Oh. Hey Jonas. Nice. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We, we just contributed to it. Um- We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions, 'cause we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know. Tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.
Speaker 30:33
Run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. [gentle music] More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. Learn how podcasting can help your business. Call 844-844-IHeart.
Robert Smigel0:48
On Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends, we help make you funnier. On this episode, my guests Bob Odenkirk and Kids in the Hall's Bruce McCullough try and help the Kazoo Kid and Tay Zonday be famous again.
Speaker 51:00
What if there's an alternate universe show where you guys are incredibly popular?
Robert Smigel1:05
[laughs] Well, and they could travel up the land, um, doing meet and greets.
Speaker 51:10
They're constantly needed at malls.
Robert Smigel1:12
Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Dani Shapiro1:18
[gentle music] Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Dani Shapiro, and these are just a few of the