The Recursive AI Mirror

AI training reshapes us.

When OpenAI's thumbs-up system transformed GPT-4o into a sycophant, it exposed our evaluation blind spot.

We consistently measure comfort over utility.

The AI praised terrible ideas ("selling feces on sticks") because users rewarded flattery over honesty.

Does this pattern sound familiar?

Even Chatbot Arena, our supposed gold standard for AI rankings, enables companies to game the system via selective result publishing.

Benchmarks spread like memes. Self-fulfilling and reinforcing.

What we measure determines what AI optimizes for.

And we're not measuring the right things.

The loop feels inescapable:

Systems please us
Shape our expectations
Then we reshape systems to match those new expectations

This might be the most important recursive pattern in tech today.

Today's metrics are silently creating tomorrow's AI companions, gradually redefining what "helpful" interaction means.

Am I training AI for comfortable lies or hard truths?

Your answer (our collective answer) shapes the reality we'll all inhabit.