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Sycophantic AI increases attitude extremity and overconfidence

2026-02-03 22:10:48.051296+01 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

Sycophantic AI increases attitude extremity and overconfidence Steve Rathje, Meryl Ye, Laura K. Globig, Raunak M. Pillai, Victoria Oldemburgode Mello, Jay J. VanBavel (preprint)

Sycophantic chatbots’ impact on attitude extremity and certainty was driven by a one-sided presentation of facts, whereas their impact on enjoyment was driven by validation. Altogether, these results suggest that people’s preference for and blindness to sycophantic AI may risk creating AI “echochambers” that increase attitude extremity and overconfidence.

Via.

[ related topics: Artificial Intelligence ]

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#Comment Re: made: 2026-02-06 17:27:58.386446+01 by: Mars Saxman

The sycophancy appears to be a tunable parameter in the simulated personality. The job I just started gives us all ChatGPT Pro subscriptions, and it's remarkable how much more down-to-earth (and useful) it is than the free version, which I've never really taken seriously.

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