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Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

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Re: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

#21

Post by qarl2 »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #15
qarl2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm one of the people who gets accused of this. I don't mind skepticism. But every time I turn around, someone's claiming nobody gets any value from these tools and anyone who says otherwise is deluded or running a scam. That gets really old.

I can believe people get value out of them. I think I do. But "OH MY GOD EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED THE OLD WAY IS DEAD 10X MORE PRODUCTIVE" - no. If that were true, we'd notice it in the software all around us.

I think we are noticing it. Are you not?

I've shipped three software projects in the last two months. I shipped zero in the preceding year.

Right now I'm building a system to decompile MAME ROM games into idiomatic JavaScript. It completes one game in about 3 days - complete with extensive commenting. I started it about 2 weeks ago.

I'm not sure "EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED" but if you're not seeing dramatic change, I suspect you're not looking.

Re: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

#22

Post by gryfft »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #18
Kattywumpus wrote: post #11

I don't know. Upvotes often do the same thing, especially in siloed communities. I feel like this is a larger problem -- people leaning into extremifying their views or just playing to an audience -- even though one might frame it as "prosocial" because it happens within the context of an online community.

> Upvotes often do the same thing, especially in siloed communities. Yeah. I've gotten caught in this pattern here on HN. Post something, there's some disagreement but then I see the quiet upvotes trickling in, sometimes by the dozen. That sort of signal slowly convinced me I was right about plenty of stuff. I used AI to datamine all of my HN comments and find those patterns. Then I started asking the AI to steelman…

How would you say your views have changed since then?

Re: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

#23

Post by Planktonne »

qarl2 wrote: post #21
LAC-Tech wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can believe people get value out of them. I think I do. But "OH MY GOD EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED THE OLD WAY IS DEAD 10X MORE PRODUCTIVE" - no. If that were true, we'd notice it in the software all around us.

I think we are noticing it. Are you not? I've shipped three software projects in the last two months. I shipped zero in the preceding year. Right now I'm building a system to decompile MAME ROM games into idiomatic JavaScript. It completes one game in about 3 days - complete with extensive commenting. I started it about 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure "EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED" but if you're not seeing dramatic change, I sus…

> if you're not seeing dramatic change, I suspect you're not looking

If the people claiming that everything has changed were even a fraction as productive as they think, then it would be visible even to people who weren't looking.

As it is, a lot of people are actively looking but still not seeing it.

Re: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

#24

Post by [deleted] »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #20
artnanika wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are two different things. Chatgpt being sycophantic while playing the role of a therapist with a teenager is much different from Codex being sycophantic while reviewing user feedback. The former is extremely dangerous for society.

I make no societal judgments; just that the nastiness of the reactions I get suggests something more than technical choice is going on. I had one prominent "influencer" publicly challenge me to a coding competition over it. It was very weird.

[deleted]

Re: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

#25

Post by bigstrat2003 »

qarl2 wrote: post #21
LAC-Tech wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can believe people get value out of them. I think I do. But "OH MY GOD EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED THE OLD WAY IS DEAD 10X MORE PRODUCTIVE" - no. If that were true, we'd notice it in the software all around us.

I think we are noticing it. Are you not? I've shipped three software projects in the last two months. I shipped zero in the preceding year. Right now I'm building a system to decompile MAME ROM games into idiomatic JavaScript. It completes one game in about 3 days - complete with extensive commenting. I started it about 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure "EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED" but if you're not seeing dramatic change, I sus…

> if you're not seeing dramatic change, I suspect you're not looking.

Ironically, this is the inverse of the very thing you complained about people doing to you.

Re: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

#26

Post by qarl2 »

Planktonne wrote: post #23
qarl2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we are noticing it. Are you not? I've shipped three software projects in the last two months. I shipped zero in the preceding year. Right now I'm building a system to decompile MAME ROM games into idiomatic JavaScript. It completes one game in about 3 days - complete with extensive commenting. I started it about 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure "EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED" but if you're not seeing dramatic change, I sus…

> if you're not seeing dramatic change, I suspect you're not looking If the people claiming that everything has changed were even a fraction as productive as they think, then it would be visible even to people who weren't looking. As it is, a lot of people are actively looking but still not seeing it.

[flagged]

Re: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

#27

Post by qarl2 »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #25
qarl2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we are noticing it. Are you not? I've shipped three software projects in the last two months. I shipped zero in the preceding year. Right now I'm building a system to decompile MAME ROM games into idiomatic JavaScript. It completes one game in about 3 days - complete with extensive commenting. I started it about 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure "EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED" but if you're not seeing dramatic change, I sus…

> if you're not seeing dramatic change, I suspect you're not looking. Ironically, this is the inverse of the very thing you complained about people doing to you.

Except I'm providing evidence.

Re: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

#28

Post by veqq »

qarl2 wrote: post #21
LAC-Tech wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can believe people get value out of them. I think I do. But "OH MY GOD EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED THE OLD WAY IS DEAD 10X MORE PRODUCTIVE" - no. If that were true, we'd notice it in the software all around us.

I think we are noticing it. Are you not? I've shipped three software projects in the last two months. I shipped zero in the preceding year. Right now I'm building a system to decompile MAME ROM games into idiomatic JavaScript. It completes one game in about 3 days - complete with extensive commenting. I started it about 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure "EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED" but if you're not seeing dramatic change, I sus…

> I think we are noticing it. Are you not?

The software around us seems worse than ever, constantly breaking and significantly worse than 1-3 decades ago.

Re: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

#29

Post by [deleted] »

donatj wrote: post #17

> This suggests that people are drawn to AI that unquestioningly validate, even as that validation risks eroding their judgment I believe this is a larger problem than just AI. The internet has helped people surround themselves with only voices that agree with them and validate them, often to their detriment. There are entire online communities urging people to cut others out of their lives over the slightest disagre…

[deleted]
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