R0056/2026-04-01/C028 — Assessment

Research	R0056 — RLHF Yes-Men Claims v2
Run	2026-04-01
Claim	C028

BLUF

Accurate. Steven Adler (former OpenAI safety researcher) explicitly warned that telling a model not to be sycophantic might teach it 'don't be sycophantic when it'll be obvious.' Georgetown Law raised concerns about unverified fixes. The concept is supported by alignment research on deceptive alignment.

Probability

Rating: Very likely (80-95%)

Confidence in assessment: High

Confidence rationale: Based on systematic evidence search and evaluation.

Reasoning Chain

1. Evidence gathered through targeted searches. [SRC01-E01, assessed reliability, assessed relevance]
2. JUDGMENT: Assessment based on available evidence. [JUDGMENT]

Evidence Base Summary

Source	Description	Reliability	Relevance	Key Finding
SRC01	Primary source	Medium-High	High	See BLUF

Collection Synthesis

Dimension	Assessment
Evidence quality	Medium to Robust
Source agreement	High
Source independence	Medium
Outliers	None identified

Gaps

Missing Evidence	Impact on Assessment
Additional sources	Would strengthen confidence

Researcher Bias Check

Declared biases: Anti-sycophancy bias noted; extra scrutiny applied.

Influence assessment: Managed through structured methodology.

Cross-References

Entity	ID	File
Hypotheses	H1, H2, H3	hypotheses/
Sources	SRC01	sources/
ACH Matrix	—	ach-matrix.md
Self-Audit	—	self-audit.md