US Army tells staff to limit AI use after running low on tokens

In short: The US Army told some employees to limit their use of an AI tool after the Army’s shared “token” budget ran out.

What happened

Employees at the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) received an email warning that they were “burning through tokens” and needed to reduce usage. The email said the Army’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) had announced “unlimited tokens” in May 2026, but by mid-June the token pool was exhausted and limits had to be set again.

The tool in question is Ask Sage, a workplace AI system the Army uses that can run several well known AI models, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Llama. The Army says it has used Ask Sage for office tasks like rewriting and aligning job descriptions.

To understand the limit, it helps to know what a token is. Tokens are like the “meter” for AI output, similar to how phone plans used to count minutes. For Ask Sage, one token is about 3.7 characters, according to documents WIRED reviewed.

WIRED reports the Army had access to 100,000,000 tokens under an annual “enterprise pack” subscription. Emails reviewed by WIRED said employees were given at least 200,000 tokens per month, and some were encouraged to use more if they were not using their allocation.

The email also raised uncertainty about what comes next, saying it was unclear whether the Army’s CIO token pool would be renewed after October 1.

Why it matters

This is a practical reminder that AI use has real costs and real limits, even inside large organizations. It also shows a growing pattern: employers push AI use, then try to curb it when spending rises or results disappoint. The Army and the Defense Department did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment, and Ask Sage did not reply either.

Source: Wired