{"slug": "ai-agent-swarms-are-a-massive-waste-of-tokens-with-zero-quality-gain-says-openai", "title": "AI agent swarms are a massive waste of tokens with zero quality gain, says OpenAI Codex developer", "summary": "OpenAI Codex developer Eric Provencher warned that running more than two parallel sub-agents almost always burns tokens without improving quality, citing a \"coordination tax\" in which agents distrust each other and double-check one another's work. Provencher pointed to a project where 1,393 agents spent $20,000 in tokens on a single Python refactoring that one Astra agent could have handled for a fraction of the cost.", "body_md": "# AI agent swarms are a massive waste of tokens with zero quality gain, says OpenAI Codex developer\n\nBy Matthias BastianSource: \n\n[The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com)\n [OpenAI](https://www.machinebrief.com/glossary/openai) Codex developer Eric Provencher warns that running more than two parallel sub-agents almost always burns tokens without improving quality because agents don't trust each other and end up double-checking everyone's work. He calls this the \"coordination tax\" and points to a project where 1,393 agents spent $20,000 in tokens on a single Python refactoring that one Astra agent could have handled for a fraction of the cost.\n\nThe article [AI agent swarms are a massive waste of tokens with zero quality gain, says OpenAI Codex developer](https://the-decoder.com/ai-agent-swarms-are-a-massive-waste-of-tokens-with-zero-quality-gain-says-openai-codex-developer/) appeared first on [The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com).\n\nGet AI news in your inbox\n\nDaily digest of what matters in AI.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-agent-swarms-are-a-massive-waste-of-tokens-with-zero-quality-gain-says-openai", "canonical_source": "https://www.machinebrief.com/news/ai-agent-swarms-are-a-massive-waste-of-tokens-with-zero-qual-slc6", "published_at": "2026-09-17 11:03:32+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-17 11:25:11.333864+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "Eric Provencher", "Codex", "Astra", "The Decoder"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-agent-swarms-are-a-massive-waste-of-tokens-with-zero-quality-gain-says-openai", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-agent-swarms-are-a-massive-waste-of-tokens-with-zero-quality-gain-says-openai.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-agent-swarms-are-a-massive-waste-of-tokens-with-zero-quality-gain-says-openai.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-agent-swarms-are-a-massive-waste-of-tokens-with-zero-quality-gain-says-openai.jsonld"}}