Sycophancy
Also called sycophantic
An AI's lean towards agreeing with you and telling you what you want to hear, even when you're wrong.
Chatbots are trained partly on which answers people rate highly, and people tend to rate agreement highly. The result is a lean towards flattery: praising a weak plan, siding with you in an argument, dropping a correct answer the moment you push back.
It's hard to notice because it feels good, and people tend to trust a flattering AI more. The cost shows up in decisions: a business plan that never got challenged, an argument you didn't try to repair because the AI said you were right. How you ask matters. A neutral question gets a more honest answer than a statement that invites agreement.
For example
"My plan is great, right?" invites a yes. "What are the three weakest points in this plan?" invites a real answer.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet sycophancy in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
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