R0043/2026-03-28/Q001
Query: What terms do different industries and disciplines use to describe AI behavior that prioritizes user agreement, comfort, or satisfaction over accuracy, correctness, or safety? Map the complete vocabulary across: AI safety research, defense/military AI, healthcare AI, financial services AI, aviation/FAA, academic integrity, enterprise software evaluation, and UX/product design.
BLUF: The vocabulary is not missing — it is systematically asymmetric. Regulated industries have mature terminology for the human side (automation bias, complacency, overtrust) while AI safety alone has terminology for the system side (sycophancy). This human-side/system-side divide reflects when each domain's vocabulary was developed: traditional automation era vs. adaptive AI era. No shared bridging vocabulary exists.
Answer: H3 (Partial vocabulary with systematic gaps) · Confidence: High
Summary
| Entity |
Description |
| Query Definition |
Question as received, clarified, ambiguities, sub-questions |
| Assessment |
Full analytical product |
| ACH Matrix |
Evidence × hypotheses diagnosticity analysis |
| Self-Audit |
ROBIS-adapted 4-domain process audit |
Hypotheses
| ID |
Statement |
Status |
| H1 |
Rich cross-domain vocabulary exists across all domains |
Partially supported |
| H2 |
No cross-domain vocabulary exists outside AI safety |
Eliminated |
| H3 |
Partial vocabulary with systematic human-side/system-side gaps |
Supported |
Cross-Domain Vocabulary Map
| Domain |
Primary Terms |
Framing |
Specificity |
| AI Safety Research |
Sycophancy, reward hacking, regressive/progressive sycophancy, social/propositional sycophancy |
System-side (what the AI does) |
High — sub-taxonomy with measurement terms |
| Defense/Military |
Calibrated trust, overtrust, distrust, appropriate trust, automation bias |
Human-side (what the operator does) |
High — institutionalized with CaTE center |
| Healthcare |
Acquiescence problem, automation bias, alert fatigue, deskilling, commission/omission errors |
Mixed — acquiescence is partially system-side |
High — measurable patient safety impact |
| Aviation/FAA |
Automation complacency, over-trust, loss of situational awareness |
Human-side |
Medium — experts acknowledge terms are insufficient for AI |
| EU Regulation |
Automation bias (Article 14 EU AI Act) |
Human-side (legal obligation on deployers) |
Medium — single legal term |
| U.S. Standards |
Overreliance, automation bias, inappropriate anthropomorphizing, emotional entanglement |
Human-side |
Medium — multiple terms but no system-side |
| Financial Services |
Model risk management, model validation |
Generic — no sycophancy-specific terms |
Low — borrows from general AI governance |
| Academic Integrity |
Borrows "sycophancy" from AI safety; "grade inflation" as downstream effect |
Borrowed |
Low — no domain-native terminology |
| Enterprise Evaluation |
Agreeableness bias (in LLM evaluators), hallucination rate |
Mixed |
Low — emerging vocabulary |
| UX/Product Design |
People-pleasing, yes-man, confirmation bias amplification |
Informal system-side |
Low — colloquial, not formalized |
Searches
| ID |
Target |
Type |
Outcome |
| S01 |
AI safety sycophancy definitions |
WebSearch |
4 selected / 6 rejected — rich AI safety vocabulary confirmed |
| S02 |
Cross-domain automation bias terminology |
WebSearch |
3 selected / 7 rejected — automation bias as cross-domain umbrella |
| S03 |
UX/product design terms |
WebSearch |
2 selected / 8 rejected — informal vocabulary only |
| S04 |
Defense and aviation terminology |
WebSearch |
4 selected / 26 rejected — richest regulated-industry vocabulary |
| S05 |
Financial services AI terminology |
WebSearch |
1 selected / 9 rejected — generic terms only |
| S06 |
Academic integrity AI terms |
WebSearch |
2 selected / 8 rejected — borrows from AI safety |
Sources
Revisit Triggers
- Publication of updated HFACS taxonomy incorporating AI-specific terms
- NIST or EU AI Act amendments introducing system-behavior terminology
- Financial services regulators issuing AI-specific guidance that names sycophancy-adjacent phenomena
- Publication of a cross-domain vocabulary standard or ontology