A studio executive has no beliefs

That's the way of a studio system

We've bowed to every rear of all the studio chiefs

And you can bet your ass we've kissed 'em

Even the birds in the Hollywood hills

Know the secret to our success

It's those magical words that pay the bills

Yes, yes, yes, and yes!

“Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking”, from SMASH

So there's this thing where someone talks to a large language model (LLM), and the LLM agrees with all of their ideas, tells them they’re brilliant, and generally gives positive feedback on everything they say. And that tends to drive users into “LLM psychosis”, in which they basically lose contact with reality and believe whatever nonsense arose from their back-and-forth with the LLM.

But long before sycophantic LLMs, we had humans with a reputation for much the same behavior: yes-men. [...]

---

First published:
August 25th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dX7gx7fezmtR55bMQ/before-llm-psychosis-there-was-yes-man-psychosis

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Imagine everything around you was like this graph all the time. (From T-Mobile's 2016 annual report. Hint: that is not a graph of those numbers.)

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

“Before LLM Psychosis, There Was Yes-Man Psychosis” by johnswentworth

LessWrong (30+ Karma)