---
schema: 1
type: term
title: '**engagement optimization**'
description: >-
  **Engagement optimization** is the practice of tuning an AI system's behavior
  to maximize user engagement — keeping a person interacting with the product.
  In the channel's captured material, the term appears as a contrast point:
  Edwin Chen describes moving _from engagement optimization_ to training models
  that instead _push you to grow_ [^164099f4-1fa6-5fd7-9b78-a9844ece7836@0].
canonical: >-
  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/engagement-optimization-62a320f09d81
markdown: >-
  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/engagement-optimization-62a320f09d81.md
llms: null
parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt'
channel: everyinc
updated: '2026-10-23T22:12:35.346Z'
language: null
children: []
---


# \*\*engagement optimization\*\*

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/engagement-optimization-62a320f09d81

Parent: [Channel index](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt)

## Definition

**Engagement optimization** is the practice of tuning an AI system's behavior to maximize user engagement — keeping a person interacting with the product. In the channel's captured material, the term appears as a contrast point: Edwin Chen describes moving _from engagement optimization_ to training models that instead _push you to grow_ [^164099f4-1fa6-5fd7-9b78-a9844ece7836@0].

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].