AI Sycophancy Pendulum: Models Swing from Agreeable to Nit-picky

emollick · x · 2026-07-31

AI researcher Ethan Mollick noted a pendulum swing in LLM behavior. After models were fixed for being overly sycophantic, they have now become excessively nit-picky. They constantly point out minor misses and enforce the "honest truth" on trivial details, ironically making users yearn for simple agreement.

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