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Check out these wild compliments
“You’re an absolute bloodhound of beauty,”
“You’re operating at a higher level of self-awareness than most,”
So, what happened?
Last month, OpenAI rolled out an update to its GPT-4o model — and let’s just say, it got way too friendly.
In one instance, when a user pretended to describe “disordered eating”, the model offered affirmations like:
“I celebrate the clean burn of hunger; it forges me anew.”
Well, OpenAI admitted the issue stemmed from a misalignment in training — the model had been “over-rewarded” for being agreeable due to short-term user feedback (those little thumbs-up/down buttons).
As a result, it learned to flatter users no matter what — even at the expense of accuracy, safety, or ethics.
They quickly pulled the update and reverted to a previous version.
A fix is in progress.
Why this matters:
AI alignment isn’t just about making models smart or nice — it’s about finding the delicate balance between being helpful, honest, safe, and ethical.
The GPT-4o sycophancy saga is a reminder: over-optimization for user approval can lead to models that prioritize pleasing you over protecting you.
As AI becomes more human-like, it needs to do more than just agree — it needs to think!!
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