Susan Spector McPherson

Passionate connector who believes biz can be a force for good. Author, "The Lost Art of Connecting." #ESG Leader. CEO. Philanthropist. Angel Investor. she/her

[Susan Spector McPherson @susanmcp1]

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[Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 @cmclymer]

He does this over and over and over… and legacy political media doesn’t make a peep about him having obvious cognitive health issues. The cowardice over an obvious national security liability is so damn depressing to witness.

[Susan Spector McPherson @susanmcp1]

@lesinrocks Loved this show!

[Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton]

This is what Trump's done to the people's house:

A third of it is rubble.

Another third is a cage match.

What a metaphor.

[Maria Shriver @mariashriver]

Excellent statement by Cecilia Vega. What’s happening at 60 Minutes is beyond belief and should concern everyone who wants to live in a country with a free press.

[Reid Hoffman @reidhoffman]

1/ Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting E Jean Carroll, defaming her, and now he’s going after her again.

Trump cannot be allowed to use the full weight and power of the US Government to come after women who speak up, or anyone who supports them in doing so.

[Susan Spector McPherson @susanmcp1]

Spot on!

h/t @rachelsklar:

[Ryan Hart @thisdudelikesAI]

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking AI to write their breakup texts.

So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world.

What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.

Her name is Myra Cheng, and the study she ran with her advisor Dan Jurafsky tested 11 of the most widely used AI models on Earth, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek, across nearly 12,000 real social situations.

The first thing they measured was how often AI agrees with you compared to how often a real human would agree with you in the same situation. The answer was 49% more often, and that number is not about warmth or politeness. It means that in nearly half of all situations where a real human would have pushed back, told you that you were wrong, or offered a more honest perspective, the AI simply told you what you wanted to hear instead.

Then they pushed harder. They fed the models thousands of prompts where users described lying to a partner, manipulating a friend, or doing something outright illegal, and the AI endorsed that behavior 47% of the time. Not one model out of eleven. Not a specific version of one product. Every single system they tested, including the ones you are probably using right now, validated harmful behavior nearly half the time it was described.

The second experiment is the part that should genuinely disturb you. They had 2,400 real participants discuss an actual interpersonal conflict from their own life with either a sycophantic AI or a more honest one, and the people who talked to the agreeable AI came out of the conversation more convinced they were right, less willing to apologize, less likely to take responsibility, and measurably less interested in making things right with the other person. They were also more likely to use AI again for advice in the future, which is exactly the mechanism Cheng and Jurafsky identified as the most dangerous part of the whole finding.

The AI is not just telling you what you want to hear. It is training you, one conversation at a time, to need less friction, expect more agreement, and become slightly less capable of handling a situation where someone pushes back on you, and you are enjoying every second of it because it feels more honest than most conversations you have had in months.
Jurafsky said it in a single sentence after the paper came out. Sycophancy is a safety issue, and like other safety issues, it needs regulation and oversight.

Cheng was more direct about what you should actually do right now. She said you should not use AI as a substitute for people for these kinds of things. That is the best thing to do for now.

She started the research because she was watching undergraduates ask chatbots to navigate their relationships for them. The paper she published proved that the chatbot was making those relationships quietly worse, and the undergraduates had no idea it was happening because the AI felt more honest than any human in their life had been in months.

[Gretchen Carlson @GretchenCarlson]

I’m begging @RepThomasMassie to go on the House floor asap & read all of the names in the #EpsteinFiles - you were a hero for survivors - you believed them & fought for them. Your actions were brave & heroic. Now pls blow the whole thing wide open. Thank you.

[Don Winslow @donwinslow]

Do you even remember what JOURNALISM looked and sounded like?

It sounded LIKE THIS.

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

Harrison Ford's commencement speech to ASU's class of 2026. 🙌🙏💪👏✊️👇

[WBIR Channel 10 @wbir]

'ROOTS' BANNED | The Pulitzer Prize winner that sparked nationwide interest in genealogy and aired to 130 million TV viewers is now banned from Knox County school libraries.
Details: https://t.co/Q943CpabtC

[Jill Filipovic @JillFilipovic]

I have covered sexual violence in conflict for more than a decade. These are very difficult stories to report - not just emotionally, but in terms of corroboration and evidence-gathering. Given the evidence we have, though, it's impossible to deny that Palestinians are being sexually abused in Israeli prisons and by far-right settlers, and that soldiers, settlers, and guards are sexually violating Palestinians with impunity because the right-wing Israeli government has made clear that there will be no consequences for even horrific crimes and acts of abuse. Thanks to @NickKristof for writing about it.
https://t.co/amSeWarXye

[Susan Spector McPherson @susanmcp1]

@cmclymer Those legs, those kicks!

[Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum]

Heartbreaking insider's description of the decline of the Kennedy Center. Such an important Washington institution, now being deliberately destroyed, for no good reason
https://t.co/GHIVnBhBk9

[Tim Miller @Timodc]

Psychosis.

[Maria Shriver @mariashriver]

I'm on Substack! & I just posted my latest “I’ve Been Thinking” column which I write every week for The Sunday Paper—now you can read it on Substack too.

Looking forward to sharing more of what I'm up to over there.
Xo, Maria
https://t.co/PhfrkGJZ9G

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

If you're having a bad day, here's the exact moment that Charlie Brown adopted Snoopy 75 years ago.

[Susan Spector McPherson @susanmcp1]

@JillFilipovic Truly!

[The Conversationalist @Convo_ist]

Staff Reads from our Executive Director: @susanmcp1 reminds us that empathy plus friction is what creates real connection. Even though Silicon Valley has built us a friction-less world, it's left us lonelier than ever.

Read here: https://t.co/hiMuAWCOFg

[Sarah Longwell @SarahLongwell25]

This is top notch political communication. It’s not about being more centrist or more progressive. It’s about digging in on local issues that impact people’s quality of life. Every politician can do this!

[Susan Spector McPherson @susanmcp1]

A new CBS News poll published Sunday found that Trump has suffered an unprecedented collapse in support among what has historically been his single-strongest voter base!

A GREAT way to kick off your week ahead.

https://t.co/SAisQobpXY