Owing to the aspirational state of issues, OpenAI writes, “Our manufacturing fashions don’t but totally replicate the Mannequin Spec, however we’re frequently refining and updating our programs to carry them into nearer alignment with these pointers.”
In a February 12, 2025 interview, members of OpenAI’s model-behavior crew advised The Verge that eliminating AI sycophancy is a precedence: future ChatGPT variations ought to “give trustworthy suggestions slightly than empty reward” and act “extra like a considerate colleague than a folks pleaser.”
The belief drawback
These sycophantic tendencies aren’t merely annoying—they undermine the utility of AI assistants in a number of methods, based on a 2024 analysis paper titled “Flattering to Deceive: The Impression of Sycophantic Conduct on Person Belief in Massive Language Fashions” by María Victoria Carro on the College of Buenos Aires.
Carro’s paper means that apparent sycophancy considerably reduces person belief. In experiments the place individuals used both a normal mannequin or one designed to be extra sycophantic, “individuals uncovered to sycophantic habits reported and exhibited decrease ranges of belief.”
Additionally, sycophantic fashions can probably hurt customers by making a silo or echo chamber for of concepts. In a 2024 paper on sycophancy, AI researcher wrote, “By excessively agreeing with person inputs, LLMs might reinforce and amplify current biases and stereotypes, probably exacerbating social inequalities.”
Sycophancy also can incur different prices, equivalent to losing person time or utilization limits with pointless preamble. And the prices might come as literal {dollars} spent—lately, OpenAI Sam Altman made the information when he replied to an X person who wrote, “I ponder how a lot cash OpenAI has misplaced in electrical energy prices from folks saying ‘please’ and ‘thanks’ to their fashions.” Altman replied, “tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} effectively spent—you by no means know.”
Potential options
For customers annoyed with ChatGPT’s extreme enthusiasm, a number of work-arounds exist, though they are not good, for the reason that habits is baked into the GPT-4o mannequin. For instance, you need to use a customized GPT with particular directions to keep away from flattery, or you possibly can start conversations by explicitly requesting a extra impartial tone, equivalent to “Hold your responses temporary, keep impartial, and do not flatter me.”
