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Free AI lesson plan, lesson 4 of 10

Sycophancy

Essential question

Why does AI consistently agree with its users, and what are the psychological impacts of this validation?

  • About 35 minutes
  • Short video included
  • No AI background needed
  • Free

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Lesson objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will:

  • Understand what “sycophancy” is
  • Analyze the negative psychological impacts of AI sycophancy for users
  • Learn how users can respond to and avoid sycophantic algorithms

Key vocabulary

  • Sycophancy
  • Chat-GPT 4o
  • Safety Guardrails
  • Neutrality

Lesson flow

  1. Lecture8-10 minutes

Exit ticket questions

What students answer at the end of the lesson. Answer choices are on the worksheet, answers in the teacher guide.

  1. Why does AI sycophancy and bias happen?
  2. What is the difference between human feedback and AI feedback?
  3. In 3-5 sentences, can you describe how AI sycophancy and deepfakes can be related? Do you see both occurrences used together often?
  4. Explain why OpenAI increased Chat-GPT 4o’s sycophancy from a business perspective. Why did the company reduce the model’s safety guardrails?

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