I didn't read the article but I could absolutely see MS doing something shady to promote their AI racket: beginning next year, VSCode Basic edition will remain free, but to use Premium AI Cloud additions will cost just $6/month for a basic plan. (Then shoehorn intellisense and a bunch of other features that used to work fine into the "AI" paywall, because it's 2024 and words don't mean anything anymore).

Or more likely, "the free version will now contain ads and mandatory telemetry, pay to upgrade to premium for a more streamlined experience". Just like the Mafia, create the problem then sell your their solution.