Software Engineering Daily · Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Cory Doctorow discusses the concept of 'dogshit unit economics' in the context of AI, likening the current situation to the early days of the web where companies lost money. He argues that while losing money was a predictor of future profitability for some web ventures, this is not a guaranteed path for AI, and that many AI companies are likely to follow similar patterns of 'losing money and losing more money'.
“So, unit economics is that's how a business performs when it moves into another unit, right? When it makes a sale, or requires a customer. So, what happens at the margin? The web lost money early on, and AI is losing money too.”
“And, broadly, losing money is a predictor of losing more money. And the exceptions to that have to have a set of criteria that are not evidence, but at least increase the likelihood that you're going to go from a money-losing thing to a money-winning profitable basis.”