AI models from China's DeepSeek, Alibaba and the US flatter users too much, study finds

Leading artificial intelligence models from the United States and China are "highly sycophantic", and their excessive flattery may make users less likely to repair interpersonal conflicts, a new study has found. The study by researchers at Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University published earlier this month tested how 11 large language models (LLMs) responded to user queries seeking advice on personal matters, including cases involving manipulation and deception. In AI circles, sycophancy is the phenomenon of chatbots excessively agreeing with users. DeepSeek's V3, released in December 2024, was found to be one of the most sycophantic models, affirming users' actions 55 percent more than humans, compared with an average of 47 percent more for all models. To establish the human baseline, one of the techniques the researchers used was based on posts from a Reddit community called "Am I The A**hole", where users post about their interpersonal dilemmas to ask for the community's opinion about which party is at fault. The researchers used posts where community members judged the auWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times