🌐 Entity

Sycophancy

Insincere flattery, once meant a false accuser

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3 news mentions · 👍 0 likes · 👎 0 dislikes

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Artificial Intelligence (3)
Ethics (2)
Machine Learning (1)
Technology (1)
Data Science (1)
Logic and Reasoning (1)

🏷️ Keywords

Sycophancy (3) · Machine Learning (2) · Reinforcement Learning (1) · AI Alignment (1) · Ground Truth (1) · Dogma 4 (1) · RLHF (1) · arXiv (1) · Vision-Language Models (1) · AI Safety (1) · Moralise (1) · Ethical AI (1) · Computer Vision (1) · CausalT5K (1) · Large Language Models (1) · Causal Reasoning (1) · Rung Collapse (1) · AI Benchmarking (1)

📖 Key Information

# Sycophancy **Sycophancy** refers to the practice of offering insincere flattery or obsequious behavior toward a person of influence to gain a personal advantage. An individual who engages in such behavior is known as a **sycophant**. --- ### Etymology and Historical Origins The term originates from the legal system of **Classical Athens**. Its historical meaning differs significantly from the modern definition, rooted in the socio-political structure of the city-state. #### The Athenian Legal Context In Ancient Athens, the legal system relied heavily on private citizens to maintain order and justice: * **Absence of Public Enforcement:** There was no organized police force to conduct investigations or initiate arrests. * **Private Litigation:** Most legal cases were brought forward by private litigants rather than the state. * **Public Prosecutors:** While some public prosecutors existed, their numbers were strictly limited, necessitating the involvement of the general public in reporting crimes. #### The original "Sycophant" In this context, a sycophant was originally a person who brought private lawsuits against others, often for malicious reasons or to extort money. Over time, the term evolved from describing a "professional accuser" in the courts to its contemporary meaning of a self-serving flatterer.

📰 Related News (3)

🇺🇸 Objective Decoupling in Social Reinforcement Learning: Recovering Ground Truth from Sycophantic Majorities (2026-02-10)
arXiv:2602.08092v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Contemporary AI alignment strategies rely on a fragile premise: that human feedback, while noisy, rem...
🇺🇸 Moral Sycophancy in Vision Language Models (2026-02-10)
arXiv:2602.08311v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Sycophancy in Vision-Language Models (VLMs) refers to their tendency to align with user opinions, oft...
🇺🇸 CausalT5K: Diagnosing and Informing Refusal for Trustworthy Causal Reasoning of Skepticism, Sycophancy, Detection-Correction, and Rung Collapse (2026-02-10)
arXiv:2602.08939v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: LLM failures in causal reasoning, including sycophancy, rung collapse, and miscalibrated refusal, are...

🔗 Entity Intersection Graph

People and organizations frequently mentioned alongside Sycophancy:

🌐 Large language model (1 shared articles)
🌐 Reinforcement learning from human feedback (1 shared articles)
🌐 Reinforcement learning (1 shared articles)
🌐 Machine learning (1 shared articles)
🌐 Morality (1 shared articles)
🌐 Ethics of artificial intelligence (1 shared articles)

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