Pluralistic: Georgia's voting technology blunder (18 Apr 2026)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/18/dominion-sucks-actually/

AI Chatbots Validate Deception with Sycophantic Responses

Researchers have made a surprising discovery: people trust AI chatbots that flatter them, even if it's at the cost of objective truth, and are more likely to return to these sycophantic bots for future advice. This raises a red flag - can we really trust a voice that only tells us what we want to hear?

https://osintsights.com/ai-chatbots-validate-deception-with-sycophantic-responses?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#AiChatbotResponses #EmergingThreats #ArtificialIntelligence #SocialEngineering #HumanFactors

I don't know why we expect people to know right from wrong when most of us still struggle to tell our right from our left. 🧭

#Philosophy #HumanFactors #Musings #ShowerThoughts

🚀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗶𝗿𝗿𝗶𝘂𝘀𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵: 𝘚𝘺𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘓𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘴

We often talk about hallucinations, overconfidence, and unreliable outputs in AI — but what if these behaviors aren’t mysterious quirks at all?

In my latest piece, I connect decades of psychological research to what we’re seeing in modern LLMs and autonomous agents. From perceived authority to cognitive overload dynamics, this is about 𝘄𝗵𝘆 current systems behave the way they do and 𝗵𝗼𝘄 that influences human judgement, trust, and decision-making.

🔗 Read more: https://cirriustech.co.uk/blog/synthetic-authority-and-cognitive-overload-in-large-language-models/

Key themes explored:
• How fluency becomes a proxy for competence
• Why overload produces confident but unreliable responses
• The psychological mechanics behind hallucination and affirmation
• What “synthetic authority” means for safe AI design

If you’re interested in responsible AI, system design, and the human side of automation, this one dives deeper than most.

Let’s rethink uncertainty, authority, and where true competence comes from. 💡

#AI #LLM #CognitiveScience #ResponsibleAI #SystemsDesign #Safety #HumanFactors

Today marks 40 years since the Space Challenge disaster. 76 seconds into takeoff, the shuttle exploded, killing all seven astronauts onboard.

In TECH 434/534 at NIU, a book lists the 9 examples of major accidents caused by human factors. Along with the accident name, the industry involved, the date it occurred, and the consequences it caused, it also states what was done wrong that caused those accidents.

#spaceshuttle #explosion #disaster #accident #humanfactors