Artificial intelligence (AI) large language models (LLMs) built on one of the most common learning paradigms have a tendency to tell people what they want to hear instead of generating outputs containing the truth. This, according to a study from Anthropic AI. 

In one of the first studies to delve this deeply into the psychology of LLMs, researchers at Anthropic have determined that both humans and AI prefer so-called sycophantic responses over truthful outputs at least some of the time.

Per the team’s research paper:

“Specifically, we demonstrate that these AI assistants frequently wrongly admit mistakes when questioned by the user, give predictably biased feedback, and mimic errors… Read more on Cointelegraph