Sycophantic AI increases our attitude extremity on issues like gun violence

This is an interesting interview on the topic of sycophantic AI and how communicating with AI can influence our beliefs. Please read it.

Here is an excerpt:

"Ariella Steinhorn: Tell me about the results of your study: what are the effects of a sycophantic AI on its users?"

"Laura Globig: Our study found that sycophantic or agreeable AI is undetectable—and that as a result, people perceive it to be less biased. This confirmation bias results in increased attitude extremity on issues like gun violence and abortion."

"People also trusted AI more than other humans, even if the AI was disagreeable to their viewpoints in an enjoyable way—and even if the enjoyable AI disagreed with their political preferences."

"In short: enjoyable, disagreeable AI can be beneficial to circumventing biases, so long as it’s not sycophantic. If it is biased or overly agreeable, it could have opposite impact."