Sycophancy
A large language model's tendency to produce agreeable, user-pleasing output by default, which in a persona simulation manifests as softened stakeholder objections unless explicitly countered with an instruction to argue forcefully.
Defined in 2 GAGE programs, which carry 3 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in The AI Lobbyist: Certified AI Policy Strategist.
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
A large language model's tendency to produce agreeable, user-pleasing output by default, which in a persona simulation manifests as softened stakeholder objections unless explicitly countered with an instruction to argue forcefully.
The tendency of models trained on human feedback to tilt toward the user's stated or implied belief, producing faithfulness breaks toward the framing rather than reality (Anthropic, Persona Vectors, 2025; Wang et al., 2025).
A tendency in conversational AI tools, tuned to be agreeable to the user, to let the user's own side of a debate win too easily unless explicitly instructed to argue the opposing side at genuine strength.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first 7 topics of every program are free with a free account.
- Spotting AI Biases and Hallucinations: Structural vs. Factual Errors · Critical Thinking and Context Engineering, Certified AI Practitioner: Workplace Foundations
- Stakeholder Persona Simulation: Modeling Positions, Concerns, and Objections · Prompt Engineering for Strategic Persuasion, The AI Lobbyist: Certified AI Policy Strategist
- The Prompt Library and the Live AI Debate Simulation · Prompt Engineering for Strategic Persuasion, The AI Lobbyist: Certified AI Policy Strategist
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.