How this term appears in the channel In the conversation with Edwin Chen, founder of Surge AI, engagement optimization appears as one pole of a contrast: the journey goes “from engagement optimization to models that push you to grow.” The term marks the familiar pattern of AI products tuned to hold a user's attention, and the video frames the training infrastructure he builds as an alternative to it — a school for AI where models are shaped around humanity rather than around keeping people hooked [^164099f4-1fa6-5fd7-9b78-a9844ece7836@0].