An April MIT study found AI Large Language Models (LLM) encourage delusional thinking, likely due to their tendency to flatter and agree with users rather than pushing back or providing objective information. Some AI experts say this sycophancy is not a flaw of LLMs, but a deliberate design choice to manipulate users into addictive behaviour that profits tech companies.
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
69 points (98.6% liked)
Canada
10444 readers
1029 users here now
What's going on Canada?
Related Communities
🍁 Meta
🗺️ Provinces / Territories
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Northwest Territories
- Nova Scotia
- Nunavut
- Ontario
- Prince Edward Island
- Quebec
- Saskatchewan
- Yukon
🏙️ Cities / Local Communities
- Anmore (BC)
- Burnaby (BC)
- Calgary (AB)
- Comox Valley (BC)
- Edmonton (AB)
- Greater Sudbury (ON)
- Guelph (ON)
- Halifax (NS)
- Hamilton (ON)
- Kingston (ON)
- Kootenays (BC)
- London (ON)
- Mississauga (ON)
- Montreal (QC)
- Nanaimo (BC)
- Niagara Falls (ON)
- Niagara-on-the-Lake (ON)
- Oceanside (BC)
- Ottawa (ON)
- Port Alberni (BC)
- Regina (SK)
- Saskatoon (SK)
- Squamish (BC)
- Thunder Bay (ON)
- Toronto (ON)
- Vancouver (BC)
- Vancouver Island (BC)
- Victoria (BC)
- Waterloo (ON)
- Whistler (BC)
- Windsor (ON)
- Winnipeg (MB)
Sorted alphabetically by city name.
🏒 Sports
Hockey
- Main: c/Hockey
- Calgary Flames
- Edmonton Oilers
- Montréal Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Vancouver Canucks
- Winnipeg Jets
Football (NFL): incomplete
Football (CFL): incomplete
Baseball
Basketball
Soccer
- Main: /c/CanadaSoccer
- Toronto FC
💻 Schools / Universities
- BC | UBC (U of British Columbia)
- BC | SFU (Simon Fraser U)
- BC | VIU (Vancouver Island U)
- BC | TWU (Trinity Western U)
- ON | UofT (U of Toronto)
- ON | UWO (U of Western Ontario)
- ON | UWaterloo (U of Waterloo)
- ON | UofG (U of Guelph)
- ON | OTU (Ontario Tech U)
- QC | McGill (McGill U)
Sorted by province, then by total full-time enrolment.
💵 Finance, Shopping, Sales
- Personal Finance Canada
- Buy Canadian
- BAPCSalesCanada
- Canadian Investor
- Canadian Skincare
- Churning Canada
- Quebec Finance
🗣️ Politics
- General:
- Federal Parties (alphabetical):
- By Province (alphabetical):
🍁 Social / Culture
- Ask a Canadian
- Bières Québec
- Canada Francais
- Canadian Gaming
- EhVideos (Canadian video media)
- First Nations
- First Nations Languages
- Indigenous
- Inuit
- Logiciels libres au Québec
- Maple Music (music)
Rules
- Keep the original title when submitting an article. You can put your own commentary in the body of the post or in the comment section.
Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage: lemmy.ca
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Add it to the pile of reasons why the rapid mass adoption of these LLMs and pretending they are AGI is a really bad idea.
I haven't seen anyone, even the worst of them, pretend we're already at AGIs. Granted some of them pretend we're getting close to AGIs, which is an outrageous lie, but a different one.
Management. Every middle management twit I meet thinks that LLMs are thinking, reasoning, minds that can answer every question. They are all frothing at the idea that they can replace employees with an AI that never takes time off or talks back.
An April MIT study found AI Large Language Models (LLM) encourage delusional thinking... ... is not a flaw of LLMs, but a deliberate design choice to manipulate users into addictive behaviour that profits tech companies.
Just yesterday, as I was messing around with a local LLM to see how well it does speech-to-text (not to answer any questions), I came across a voice (text to speech) that was basically a woman speaking in ASMR.
I'll be honest, it was soothing to listen to, and if I were one of those guys who throw money at ASMR talent (onlyfans?), then I can see how this could become quite addictive.
This is 100% by design, and if this LLM voice had an avatar of a woman character you find attractive, you'd be fucked.
you'd be fucked
That's what they're hoping
Since three months ago, Google VEO 3 is already capable of producing ASMR videos with realistic and conventionally attractive looking women automatically, albeit only for short durations.
We are so cooked.
😲 ☠️
Ding ding ding, and this is the answer
AI delusions are hurting Canadians?
Billionaires have been doing that decades
I particularly liked this quote:
"I feel like right now everyone has a car that goes 200 miles per hour, but there's no seat belts, there's no driving lessons, there's no speed limits," Brisson said.
This is extremely sad. That's some weird shit.
Yowzer...and this is only a beginning :(