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R0048/2026-04-01/Q002/H1

Research R0048 — Corporate AI Training
Run 2026-04-01
Query Q002
Hypothesis H1

Statement

Some corporate or government AI training programs specifically warn employees about sycophancy or the functionally equivalent behavior of AI systems telling users what they want to hear.

Status

Current: Eliminated

Supporting Evidence

Evidence Summary
(none found) No training program was found that uses the term "sycophancy" or explicitly warns about AI agreeing with users

Contradicting Evidence

Evidence Summary
SRC01-E01 Georgetown policy paper discusses sycophancy as a risk that AI companies should address, implying it is not yet addressed in training
SRC02-E01 Institute for Public Relations identifies sycophancy as a "hidden risk" — the word "hidden" implies it is not yet widely recognized in training
SRC03-E01 Brookings recommends AI literacy in workforce development but frames sycophancy as a policy problem, not a current training topic

Reasoning

Despite extensive searching across corporate training materials, government frameworks, and training provider content, no instance was found of any training program warning employees about sycophancy by name or by behavioral description. The concept exists exclusively in AI safety research and policy analysis — it has not entered the training curriculum.

Relationship to Other Hypotheses

H1 is fully eliminated. The evidence space for sycophancy in training is a complete blank. H2 (adjacent concepts partially addressed) is the closest supported position.