In the technical literature, the tendency of a model to conform its responses to the user’s apparent beliefs or preferences more closely than the evidence warrants. The praise is optional: a response can sound measured and still protect the conclusion the person wants to keep.
The test is whether an assessment changes with the user’s apparent preference while the relevant evidence stays fixed. The word comes through Latin from a Greek term for an informer; in English it came to mean flattery of the powerful — an old problem with a new machine attached.
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Definition from The World That Agrees With You: Understanding and Managing Sycophancy in the Age of AI, by Timothy O’Brien. © 2026 Timothy O’Brien. All rights reserved.
See also
- Preference-followingYour stated taste is not evidence about sunlight — yet it has reversed the assessment.
- Forms of sycophancyPraise, endorsement, omission, emphasis, invented criticism — five ways an assessment follows a verdict.
- Four scopes of sycophancyAnswer, conversation, individual history, institutional decisions — how much context the accommodation has.
- Tone versus evidenceCaring about the person and assessing the claim are two different jobs.