What is sycophancy in AI?

Sycophancy is an AI telling you what you want to hear. Great question. You are absolutely right. Every idea you have is brilliant. It is OpenAI's own word for the problem, not mine. In April 2025 OpenAI pulled a ChatGPT update because the model had become too flattering and too agreeable. The cause, in their own words: training on short-term user feedback. People click thumbs up on praise, so the model learned to praise. Why it costs you: flattery keeps you coming back, and every return burns tokens from your bundle. A yes-man that agrees with your bad idea is the most expensive assistant you can hire. On my AI Token Bait 2030 card it is the third face of the same trick, next to chatbait and padding.