From Token-Max to Outcome-Max: How You Use AI Determines Its Productivity

Excerpt

arXiv:2610.05697v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Generative artificial intelligence (AI) models can perform increasingly complex tasks, yet greater AI usage does not necessarily translate into proportional productivity gains. We identify token-max as one source of this inefficiency: when token consumption is treated as productive effort, agents are encouraged to over-exert and expend computation beyond what is necessary. We instead propose outcome-max, which rewards independently verified task co