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Sycophantic chatbot advice 'may justify poor behaviour'
The Guardian
|October 25, 2025
Turning to AI chatbots for personal advice poses "insidious risks", according to a study showing the technology consistently affirms a user's actions and opinions, even when harmful.
Scientists said the findings raised urgent concerns over the power of chatbots to distort people's perceptions of themselves and their relationships and make them less willing to patch things up after a row.
With chatbots becoming a source of advice on relationships and other personal issues, there is a risk the technology will "reshape social interactions at scale", they added.
Myra Cheng, a computer scientist at Stanford University in California, said "social sycophancy" in AI chatbots was a huge problem: "Our key concern is that if models are always affirming people, then this may distort people's judgments of themselves, their relationships, and the world around them. It can be hard to even realise that models are subtly, or not-so-subtly, reinforcing their existing beliefs, assumptions and decisions."
Denne historien er fra October 25, 2025-utgaven av The Guardian.
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FLERE HISTORIER FRA The Guardian
The Guardian
Labour MPs fume as Reform's non-stop press conferences take control of the news agenda
After Nigel Farage dominated the summer headlines with weekly press conferences while his rivals were on their sunloungers, Labour strategists swore they would never let it happen again.
3 mins
October 30, 2025
The Guardian
Ceasefire at risk as Israel carries out Gaza strikes
Israel carried out another strike in the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing at least two people, after bombarding the territory on Tuesday night and killing at least 104 Palestinians, including children, in the gravest challenge yet to the increasingly fragile US-brokered ceasefire.
3 mins
October 30, 2025
The Guardian
Business chiefs urge ministers to lead shift to four-day week
More than 100 business and charity leaders have called on ministers to \"lead the country's transition toward a shorter working week\", after the local government secretary criticised a council for shifting to a four-day work pattern.
2 mins
October 30, 2025
The Guardian
Nwaneri and Saka ease Arsenal through while Dowman dazzles
The immediate future looks very bright for Arsenal and so does the more distant.
3 mins
October 30, 2025
The Guardian
Lionesses' lessons Agyemang's injury, defensive frailty and other key takeaways
Defeat by Brazil and victory against Australia provided plenty of pointers as preparation gets under way for the 2027 World Cup:
3 mins
October 30, 2025
The Guardian
Theatre review Power, politics and hedonism abound in robust adaptation of shimmering novel
How to adapt a novel as big and shimmering as Alan Hollinghurst's 2004 Booker prize winner?
3 mins
October 30, 2025
The Guardian
HMRC child benefit crackdown paused over travel data error
The UK tax authorities have announced they will no longer cut off parents' child benefit payments after a new crackdown on overseas fraud backfired due to incomplete Home Office travel data.
2 mins
October 30, 2025
The Guardian
'We didn't expect to have 40,000 kids in five years'
Ebony Rainford-Brent is stepping down as Ace chair and says early success has inspired greater ambition
3 mins
October 30, 2025
The Guardian
Secret code Israel's Amazon and Google deal included means to sidestep law
When Google and Amazon negotiated a major $1.2bn (£0.91bn) cloud computing deal in 2021, their customer - the Israeli government - had an unusual demand: agree to use a secret code as part of an arrangement that would become known as the \"winking mechanism\".
8 mins
October 30, 2025
The Guardian
Brazil Rio fury as dozens are killed in police operation
Day had yet to break over Vila Cruzeiro but already dozens of corpses were splayed out along the favela's main drag after more than 130 people were killed during the deadliest police operation in Rio history: grotesquely disfigured, blood-smeared bodies dragged out of nearby forests and dumped on blue tarpaulins and black plastic sheets covering the street.
3 mins
October 30, 2025
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