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Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

arxiv.org

41–50 of 117 posts

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

#41
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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]

"you should probably get your eyes checked."

Don't be a jerk. A lot of people have had bad experiences with these systems from people basically saying exactly what you're saying. This "you should get your eyes checked" mentality is pervasive with the nerds who confidently say that their analysis is solid when it's... not. It's a big problem in communities that have non-conventional videogame puzzles for example. Someone will come in, announce some novel solution.... leading to a four hour fight about the efficacy of LLMs, only to find a mistake in their code the next day.. never to be seen again.

Mind you, I'm not saying that these systems aren't great at reverse engineering and whatnot. They're spectacularly good at that. But RE is a relatively constrained problem because everything is still right in front of you. For complicated problems where the signal is mixed between noise... less so.

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

#42
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm sure it's useful for that, but we've had pretty good decompilers before AI.

I would love for you to cite a single one.

It must take a binary executable and derive English names for the memory addresses.

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

#43
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pleased for you, but these tools have been out for many, many weeks, and there are many, many people claiming incredible productivity gains. Where's the rest of it?

I just showed you something that would have been considered a miracle one year ago. And your response was "So what - show me another one."

I'm not disputing that it's a hard thing to do, but we had decompilers before; "miracle" is rather stretching it.

Even granting that framing though, the claimed increase in productivity isn't a one-off, but asserted for everyone using them; you're claiming mass-produced miracles but trying to depend on a single example.

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

#44
post #41
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

"you should probably get your eyes checked." Don't be a jerk. A lot of people have had bad experiences with these systems from people basically saying exactly what you're saying. This "you should get your eyes checked" mentality is pervasive with the nerds who confidently say that their analysis is solid when it's... not. It's a big problem in communities that have non-conventional videogame puzzles for example. Some…

As near as I can tell - your argument boils down to "I've seen other people make mistakes so you must be also."

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

#45
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it's useful for that, but we've had pretty good decompilers before AI.

I would love for you to cite a single one. It must take a binary executable and derive English names for the memory addresses.

I used to use dotPeek all the time back in like 2012. There are also things like Ghidra that the NSA made. I dunno, google them, there are a lot. I'm not saying LLMs aren't useful here, just that it's not a huge deal. Also, why are AI people always making tools to take other people's IP? You are kind of fucking with people's intellectual property without permission it seems like. I'm not saying it's the crime of the century or anything but it's distressing how many AI projects come out of "let me repackage something someone else made"

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

#46
post #9
post #4

I think this goes along way to explain people's very defensive reactions when you are skeptical about Agentic Development.

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.

> But every time I turn around, someone's claiming nobody gets any value from these tools

Really? I find agreement that gullible users get something they value, even if it is worthless.

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

#47
post #44
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"you should probably get your eyes checked." Don't be a jerk. A lot of people have had bad experiences with these systems from people basically saying exactly what you're saying. This "you should get your eyes checked" mentality is pervasive with the nerds who confidently say that their analysis is solid when it's... not. It's a big problem in communities that have non-conventional videogame puzzles for example. Some…

As near as I can tell - your argument boils down to "I've seen other people make mistakes so you must be also."

If that's what you got from it, then I hope you have a good life.

Be kinder, friend.

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

#48
post #21

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?

I am not. Congratulations on your side project.

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

#49
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just showed you something that would have been considered a miracle one year ago. And your response was "So what - show me another one."

I'm not disputing that it's a hard thing to do, but we had decompilers before; "miracle" is rather stretching it. Even granting that framing though, the claimed increase in productivity isn't a one-off, but asserted for everyone using them; you're claiming mass-produced miracles but trying to depend on a single example.

> but we had decompilers before

Cite one example of a decompiler that provides English names and comments.

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

#50
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…

I think we are noticing it. Are you not? I am not. Congratulations on your side project.

Projects, plural.

And weren't you the one who started this complaining of nastiness?

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