{
  "id": 6850670,
  "title": "The Intelligence Ladder",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/12/the-intelligence-ladder",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-12T03:12:52.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/almadar/the-intelligence-ladder-k7d"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The article discusses the need for an intelligence ladder, a system that sorts work into rungs and specifies which model and roughly how much it costs for each rung before work begins. The author, who has been grappling with the question of how much intelligence is needed for a particular task, argues that the current fuzzy answers given by AI models lead to a sunk cost trap, where users continue spending money without a clear understanding of the true cost. The lack of accountability in the industry is likened to a builder quoting a kitchen or a printer quoting a run of five thousand flyers, but the coding agent industry normalizing fuzzy estimates. The author also raises concerns about access to AI tools, questioning whether only the wealthy can afford to build software using these tools. The potential for a world where only the wealthy can build software is highlighted as dangerous. The author proposes a solution in the form of a behavior-based system, where work is broken down into shareable pieces called behaviors, which can be composed to create a program. Each behavior is assigned to a rung on the intelligence ladder, and the model choice and cost fall out of this placement instead of being guessed. The author demonstrates this with a real-time chat app example, which consists of five behaviors composed from shared components used throughout the library. The goal of this system is to eliminate guesswork and provide a more transparent and accountable process for using AI models in software development.",
  "summary": "How much intelligence do we really need? I have been sitting with this question for a long time. The more I fold language models into my daily work as a software developer, the less sure I am about a very basic thing: which model do I actually need for the task in front of me? Take a concrete case. I want to build a chat app. What is the breakdown of that work that would let me give an honest…",
  "key_points": [
    "Proposes intelligence ladder system to sort AI work into rungs with model and cost estimates.",
    "Current AI model answers lead to sunk cost trap, unclear true costs for users.",
    "Behavior-based system breaks work into shareable pieces called behaviors, assigned to rungs."
  ],
  "editors_take": "Implementing an intelligence ladder would bring transparency and accountability to AI-driven software development, enabling more equitable access to AI tools and potentially curbing the concentration of power among the wealthy.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}