# Why AI researchers are questioning whether reward maximization is the wrong objective

- slug: why-ai-researchers-are-questioning-whether-reward-maximization-is-the-wrong-objective
- date: 2026-04-14
- category: Artificial Intelligence

Every RL system in production — from recommendation engines to game-playing AI — was built on the assumption that maximizing rewards is correct. A 2024 paper says that assumption is a 30-year-old mistake.

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