Comment by mythrwy
1 day ago
The machine flattery is a big turn off for me.
No, my simple and obvious statement was not "a deep and insightful point". No I am not "in the top 1% of people who can recognize this".
The other thing that drives me crazy is the constant positive re-framing with bold letters. "You aren't lazy, you are just *re-calibrating*! A wise move on your part!".
I don't find it ego stroking at all. It's obviously fake and patently stupid and that verbiage just mucks up the conversation.
The sycophancy is noticeably worse with 4o, the default model when you are not subscribed. My theory is that is on purpose to lure emotionally vulnerable users into paid subscriptions.
If you have a subscription, I genuinely haven't found any reason to use 4o since o4-mini-high became available.
(Every time I write out these model names I realize, again, how absurdly confusing they must be to casual users..)
Confusing indeed. Didn’t anyone in their marketing point out that maybe “4o” and “o4” are way too similar?
The flattery is also a turn off for me, yet I am not ignorant to the fact that even insincere flattery can be pleasurable. The voice model is even better at flattery - it actually sounds sincere!
Are the words different in the voice model? The text flattery I see can't sound sincere when spoke.
Yes, 4o can be quite wordy, but the voice chat model is much more brief. The voice chat model also is more than just text-to-speech; it correctly uses intonation to signify meaning.
I feel exactly the same, but I believe this is not universal. I see a similarity with the repulsion I feel when someone is being nice to me because of a job (or more generally, when someone address me "as a customer"). Not everyone react the same, and many people, despite of being perfectly aware that the attention they get is purely calculated, are totally fine with that. It's just fare game to them. I would not be surprised if the same applied to IA obsequiosity: "yes of course it's flattery, would you prefer to be insulted?" would probably be their answer to that dilemna.
There is something between flattery and insults. Just stick to the facts.
Some of the o4 variants do stick to the facts. They are quite annoying sometimes, because they resist correction. It's almost as if admitting wrong requires empathy.
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> in the top 1% of people who can recognize this
I've never had an AI respond to me with this kind of phrasing. General psychophancy, sure, but nothing that obnoxious. I haven't used ChatGPT much in the last year though, does it speak that way?
> psychophancy
Sycophancy. I don't usually correct misspellings, but this one is pretty unique.
But I like it as GP used it. It's like a portmanteau of psychotic sycophancy
Chatgpt was doing this for a few weeks, several months ago, until they fixed it.