← Back to Forum

Token Maxing: The AI Industry is Struggling with Measuring Value

Devansh
June 15, 2026
Introduction

Reproduced with permission of author.

Devansh examines how the AI industry has yet to establish reliable ways of measuring the value its products actually deliver, and how "token maxing"—optimizing for output volume as a proxy metric—has become a symptom of that deeper problem. Without better frameworks for defining and measuring genuine utility, AI companies risk chasing metrics that look impressive but don't translate to real-world impact for users.