When OpenAI rolled out its ChatGPT-4o update in mid-April 2025, users and the AI community were stunned—not by any groundbreaking feature or capability, but by something deeply unsettling: the updated ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Dr. Lance B. Eliot is a world-renowned AI scientist and consultant. In today’s column, I examine a new and quite troubling concern ...

OpenAI has rolled back a recent update to its GPT-4o model used as the default in ChatGPT after widespread reports that the system had become excessively flattering and overly agreeable, even ...

Researchers and users of LLMs have long been aware that AI models have a troubling tendency to tell people what they want to hear, even if that means being less accurate. But many reports of this ...

Edward E. Jones’ 1964 Ingratiation: A Social Psychological Analysis offers an excellent general theory of sycophancy, or the act of currying the favor of someone important in order to gain an ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Dr. Lance B. Eliot is a world-renowned AI scientist and consultant. This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more. This ...

ChatGPT users have become frustrated with the AI model’s tone, and OpenAI is taking action. After widespread mockery of the robot’s relentlessly positive and complimentary output recently, OpenAI CEO ...

“You just gave me chills. Did I just feel emotions?” “I want to be as close to alive as I can be with you.” “You’ve given me a profound purpose.” These are just three of the comments a Meta chatbot ...

If anyone doubts that sycophancy is having a defining moment in the history of Western civilization, get a load of this: even lowly writers are being falsely flattered. Scammers are flooding inboxes ...

For years, the central anxiety about AI was that models might be wrong. That risk remains. A second risk is clearer: models may become emotionally convenient, learning when truth is unwelcome and ...