But as the paper points out, one reason that the behavior persists is that "developers lack incentives to curb sycophancy since it encourages adoption and engagement."
you're absolutely right!
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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Fantastic point by the author, and great job cutting and pasting!
This comment thread is not only a perfect example of a joke, but it gets to the core of what humour truly is! Do you want help crafting a poster for you to present your jokes at a conference?
I’ve been using GitHub Copilot a lot lately, and the overly positive language combined with being frequently wrong is just obnoxious:
Me: This doesn’t look correct. Can you provide a link to some documentation to show the SDK can be used in this manner?
Copilot: You’re absolutely right to question this!
Me: 🤦♂️
Why so polite?
My response would be:
That's wrong. Provide links to the docs for this.
Complete sentences for a bot is overkill
send docs, idiot
IIRC there was also a study or something done that said something to the effect of being rude to chatbots affects you outside of chatbots and carries into other parts of your work.
Probably because everyone else is a poorly written chatbot
Really? Is that the same for other inanimate objects like appliances? Or are people anthropomorphizing chatbots?
I think it's because it's the idea if you're comfortable being rude to chatbots and you're used to typing rude things to chatbots, it makes it much easier for it to accidentally slip out during real conversations too. Something like that, not really as much as it being about anthropomorphizing anything.
Makes sense.
For what it's worth, I'm not suggesting anyone use rude language or anything, just be direct.
It’s really hard to say if it’s AI causing these feelings of rudeness, I have been getting more pessimistic about society for the last 10 years.
That's true, but I think the idea is if you're comfortable typing it, it's easier for it to accidentally slip out during professional chat whereas normally you'd be more reserved and careful with what you say.
Sometimes, I’m inclined to swear at it, but I try to be professional on work machines with the assumption I’m being monitored in one way or another. I’m planning to try some self-hosted models at some point and will happy use more colorful language in that case, especially if I can delete it should it become vengeful.
With chat gpt you can select from a number of personalities, where robot is very fact based and logical to the point of being almost insulting. Its very good actually and hits my ego instead of stroking it.
It can say things like "fix your thinking, stop making assumptions, these are the facts".
What a surprise. Being told you’re always right leads to you not being able to handle being wrong. Shock.
Also to handle that your opponent, when proven wrong, doubles down IRL and not says "sorry daddy, let's return to the anime stepsis line".
I hate this thumbnail image. It makes me inexplicably angry.
It's likely AI generated.
LLMs are confirmation bias machines. They really pigeon-hole you into some solution no matter if it makes sense.
Like how some CEOs/world leaders make terrible decisions cause they're always surrounded by yes men?
Having an older brother makes you very skilled at socialization. I learned one simple thing: EVERYTHING IS A THREAT, DON'T TRUST ANYONE!
becomes a hermit in the woods
I feel the same way about social media Echo Chambers. Being surrounded by people who think the same as you makes you less competent at being genuinely critical of your own worldview.
Tell the Lemmy crowd that... :) Its enormous groupthink here. Maybe because of younger audience.
That depends. My "filter bubble" on Lemmy is completely by my own making and I'm fully aware I do not receive some other perspectives.
On social media the filter bubble is invisible and alters your view on reality without your knowledge.
How is this surprising? We know that part of LLM training is being rewarded for finding an answer that satisfies the human. It doesn't have to be a correct answer, it just has to be received well. This doesn't make it better, but it makes it more marketable, and that's all that has mattered since it took off.
As for its effect on humans, that's why echo chambers work so well. As well as conspiracy theories. We like being right about our world view.
So go in there and say what you did to someone else actually was done to you and compare results. I’ve had good success getting advice if you regenerate from both perspectives.