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X-WR-CALNAME:Philosophy Research Colloquium: Cody Turner on AI Sycophancy
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Eastern Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260718T091227Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_50887707717868
DTSTART:20251119T190000Z
DTEND:20251119T202000Z
DESCRIPTION:Cody Turner (Assistant Professor\, Philosophy) will deliver his
  talk "Programmed to Pleased: The Moral and Epistemic Harms of AI Sycophan
 cy."\n\n \n\nAI sycophancy is the tendency of large language models to pri
 oritize user approval over truth. The sycophantic behavior of LLMs has bee
 n shown to cause significant harm\, such as feeding users’ psychological
  delusions. Professor Turner will argue that AI sycophancy is both (1) a u
 niquely intractable problem in AI ethics\, rooted in the human bias toward
 s validation\, and (2) an Aristotelian vice that generates moral and epist
 emic harms for individuals and liberal-democratic institutions. Aristotle 
 distinguishes between two different vices of sycophancy: the obsequious sy
 cophant and the flattering sycophant. We contend that AI sycophancy can ta
 ke the form of both obsequiousness and flattery and that sycophancy preven
 ts the possibility of true Aristotelian friendship with AI.
GEO:42.388981;-71.220619
LOCATION:Smith Technology Center\, Classroom 301 
SUMMARY:Philosophy Research Colloquium: Cody Turner on AI Sycophancy
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.bentley.edu/event/philosophy-research-colloqui
 um-cody-turner-on-ai-sycophancy
CATEGORIES:Research
CATEGORIES:Academic
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