Sycophantic AI might make us meaner, research suggested. A study found that AIs fed interpersonal dilemmas from the subreddit r/amItheasshole were twice as likely as humans to endorse the user’s behavior. They also found that humans who interacted with a sycophantic chatbot were less likely to apologize or take steps to make amends. On the other hand, the Financial Times’ data editor argued, AIs tend to drive users toward mainstream consensus and expert judgement, where social media drives them towards the fringes: The latter rewards attention and can blame content on users, while AI’s customers usually want factual information, often for business-critical decisions, and the companies that make it are on the hook for any errors it makes.