R0056/2026-04-01/C009 — Claim Definition

Research	R0056 — RLHF Yes-Men Claims v2
Run	2026-04-01
Claim	C009

Claim as Received

Sycophancy is the mildest manifestation of a broader class of reward hacking, according to Anthropic research.

Claim as Clarified

Sycophancy is the mildest manifestation of a broader class of reward hacking, according to Anthropic research.

BLUF

Largely accurate but imprecise. Anthropic uses 'simple' not 'mildest manifestation.'

Scope

• Domain: AI safety / sycophancy research
• Timeframe: Current (as of April 2026)
• Testability: Verifiable against published research and public sources

Assessment Summary

Probability: Very likely (80-95%)

Confidence: High

Hypothesis outcome: H2 prevailed.

[Full assessment in assessment.md.]

Status

Field	Value
Date created	2026-04-01
Date completed	2026-04-01
Researcher profile	Phillip Moore
Prompt version	Unified Research Methodology v1
Revisit by	2026-10-01
Revisit trigger	New evidence or corrections