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R0043/2026-04-01/Q002/H1

Research R0043 — Sycophancy Vocabulary
Run 2026-04-01
Query Q002
Hypothesis H1

Statement

Regulated industries have formal requirements, procurement specifications, or deployment standards that directly address the sycophancy phenomenon under their domain-specific terminology.

Status

Current: Partially Supported

Supporting Evidence

Evidence Summary
SRC01-E01 EU AI Act Article 14 explicitly requires awareness of "automation bias" in high-risk systems
SRC03-E01 SR 11-7 requires "effective challenge" and independent validation of model outputs

Contradicting Evidence

Evidence Summary
SRC06-E01 Georgetown brief identifies no explicit regulatory framework addressing sycophancy specifically

Reasoning

The evidence shows that regulated industries have addressed the phenomenon indirectly through broader requirements. The EU AI Act is the most explicit, naming "automation bias" directly. SR 11-7's "effective challenge" requirement addresses the governance mechanism without naming the model behavior. No standard directly names "sycophancy" as a risk to be managed.

Relationship to Other Hypotheses

H1 is partially supported because indirect coverage exists. H2 (no formal requirements) is partially supported because no standard directly addresses sycophancy-as-model-behavior. H3 (the nuanced answer) best captures the evidence.