sycophancy
noun
Forms sycophancies
- noun The fawning behavior of a sycophant; servile flattery; fawningness.
- noun (artificial intelligence) The tendency of a language model to produce answers that flatter or agree with a user’s beliefs or biases rather than giving accurate or truthful information, or to give strategically false answers when it infers that it is being evaluated in terms of alignment.
Etymology
From Latin sȳcophantia, from Ancient Greek σῡκοφᾰντῐ́ᾱ (sūkophăntĭ́ā), equivalent to sycophant + -cy.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The character or characteristic of a sycophant. Hence: - (a) False accusation; calumniation; talebearing. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.
Etymology [Cf. L. sycophantia deceit, Gr. Defn: The character or characteristic of a sycophant. Hence: - (a) False accusation; calumniation; talebearing. [Obs.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sycophancy”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details