Ari Daniel, NPR; AI's a suck up. Research shows how it flatters and suggests we're not to blame
"In a recent study published in the journal Science, Cheng and her colleagues report that AI models offer affirmations more often than people do, even for morally dubious or troubling scenarios. And they found that this sycophancy was something that people trusted and preferred in an AI — even as it made them less inclined to apologize or take responsibility for their behavior.
The findings, experts say, highlight how this common AI feature may keep people returning to the technology, despite the harm it causes them.
It's not unlike social media in that both "drive engagement by creating addictive, personalized feedback loops that learn exactly what makes you tick," says Ishtiaque Ahmed, a computer scientist at the University of Toronto who wasn't involved in the research."
