I am the average Aussie unionist: female, middle-aged, professional... and militant, because if we’re not then bosses, aided and abetted by the Libs, cut our wages, slash our protections, and in some industries workers are injured or even die. #AusUnions level the playing field.
Labor are opposing these laws, taking the side militant unions who are in it only for themselves. We will always strive and govern well for hard-working Australians who are having a go. We will always be on their side.
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.
Amazing how a bomb….yes a bomb….was thrown into a crowd at an Invasion Day rally in Perth….and Sussan Ley, Pauline Hanson…..and Josh Frydenburg have been so fucking silent!
Also is their propaganda arm the Murdochracy!
The sheer hypocrisy is staggering.
I see lots of people peacefully working, shopping, enjoying their coffee, food etc. No one being robbed, shot, persecuted or anything wrong at all TBH.
Seems exactly what Australia is about.
Maybe the problem is that you're just a bit of a cunt?
I’m still amazed that the sub judice aspect has been ignored in the rolling media campaign for a Bondi royal commission.
In case you’ve not read about it (and why would you) I’ve written about it here:
https://t.co/DqgcGrmPxs
Turns out these ‘sports stars’ were coordinated by Nova Peris, the pro genocide Zionist mouthpiece who recently retweeted that Muslims were "Satan worshipping cockroaches [that] need to be eradicated".
We shouldn’t pander to the demands of bigots
#auspol
New anti-protest laws in NSW are used against anti-war protesters opposing Trump’s new war — on the grounds that protesting causes “fear and divisiveness”.
This is beyond ridiculous.
I just got out of the biggest weapons expo in the southern hemisphere.
I saw:
- Politicians looking for their next job,
- Companies selling weapons tested in Gaza,
- And lots of public money going to foreign arms companies.
The first 14 pages are under 1 year olds.
The first 14 pages are under 1 year olds.
The first 14 pages are under 1 year olds.
The first 14 pages are under 1 year olds.
The first 14 pages are under 1 year olds.
The first 14 pages are under 1 year olds.
Now more than ever, the work continues as we work together to tackle the unfinished business of reconcilation. Now more than ever, we need connection, respect and action.
#NRW2024
Did anyone else notice Lauren Boebert’s attempt at making the sign of the cross during the shouting match that happened last night in congress?
AND SHE GOT IT WRONG!!!
These people are so fake!
#BREAKING: China has completely surrounded Taiwan in all directions.
China currently has over 30 ships and 40+ fighter jets active in training.
—Current Report
I certainly wasn't expecting a *GP* to blame infanticide on a man being 'goaded'. 😱
I hope 2024 will cause us to deeply examine how such views come to be held by medical colleagues. 👀
If elected sheriff of Parcel Locker, St Kilda County I promise to do no knock eviction raids on all the squatters living there. I will hire the tiniest little deputies money can buy. The meanest bar snack-sized go getters you've ever seen with a magnifying glass.