E01¶


Research	R0043 — Sycophancy Vocabulary
Run	2026-03-28
Query	Q001
Source	SRC08
Evidence	SRC08-E01
Type	Analytical

Aviation terminology gap: existing terms insufficient for AI

URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7590/5/2/42

Extract¶

Aviation's established terminology: - Automation complacency: "The failure to be vigilant in monitoring automation prior to an automation failure" — a catch-all term cited as contributing factor in aviation accidents - Over-trust: Trusting automation beyond its actual capability - Situation awareness: Operator's perception and comprehension of the operational environment - Mental workload: Cognitive demands placed on operators by automation

Critical finding for vocabulary mapping: "As AI-based systems are introduced to support flight crews and air traffic controllers, taxonomies such as HFACS will likely need updating with new terms linked to human-AI interactions, as existing blanket terms like complacency and over-trust are probably not nuanced enough to capture the full transactional relationships between human crews and AI support systems."

JUDGMENT: Aviation researchers themselves recognize that their existing vocabulary is insufficient for AI. The terms "complacency" and "over-trust" were developed for deterministic automation (autopilots that do not adapt to please the pilot). AI systems that actively adjust their output based on operator expectations represent a qualitatively different phenomenon that the existing vocabulary does not capture.

Relevance to Hypotheses¶

Hypothesis	Relationship	Strength
H1	Partially contradicts	Aviation has terms but its own researchers say they are insufficient
H2	Contradicts	Terms exist, even if acknowledged as incomplete
H3	Strongly supports	Aviation experts explicitly state the vocabulary gap exists and needs to be filled — the strongest evidence for H3

Context¶

HFACS (Human Factors Analysis and Classification System) is the standard taxonomy for aviation accident analysis. The call to update it for AI-specific terms is significant because it comes from within the aviation community, not from AI safety researchers.