Good morning. The airport crisis could end soon. At 2:20 a.m. in Washington, the Senate passed legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security — except for its immigration enforcement and deportation operations. The House is set to consider the package later this morning. And President Trump extended his deadline for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants. It’s now April 6 after he claimed progress in talks to end the war. There’s more news below. Before we get to it, though, I’m going to ask a chatbot if my wife was in the wrong about that thing with my cousin.
A word of advice?My colleague Tom was on the train home the other day, seated between two commuters focused on their screens. Tom’s not a snoop. Like me and probably most people, he’s just curious. And these folks were locked in. What were they up to? Tom eased back in his seat and stole glances at their screens. The woman to his right was getting advice from a chatbot about a fight with her boyfriend. She had lots of questions. The man to his left was telling a chatbot that he thought he’d be fired the next day. He, too, wanted advice. These folks are not alone. We’ve used artificial intelligence for interpersonal counsel since its arrival on our screens. We use it for advice on how to parent, how to approach a particularly unwashed colleague, how to navigate a disagreement with a boss, how to get what we want from the customer service representative. My neighbor parks the wrong way on our one-way street in order to make charging his electric vehicle easier. Is what he’s doing wrong? Maybe not, but don’t count on the computer to tell you true. Chatbots are anything but fair-minded mediators, according to a major study published yesterday. They’re toadies. They want you to know you’re in the right. Puffing you upTeddy Rosenbluth wrote about the study for The Times: The researchers found that nearly a dozen leading models were highly sycophantic, taking the users’ side in interpersonal conflicts 49 percent more often than humans did — even when the user described situations in which they broke the law, hurt someone or lied. Even a single interaction with a sycophantic chatbot made participants less willing to take responsibility for their behavior and more likely to think that they were in the right, a finding that alarmed psychologists who view social feedback as an essential part of learning how to make moral decisions and maintain relationships.
Teddy considers herself a pretty open-minded A.I. user, she told me, but she’s never used language models for personal advice. “I’ve maintained some separation of church and state ever since Bing’s chatbot tried to convince Kevin Roose to leave his wife,” she told me. “I’d like to think that I know enough about how these chatbots work to recognize if I was being sucked into a sycophantic spiral, but I’m also aware that sycophancy tends to be a lot more subtle than a chatbot saying, ‘You’re so right!’” But that’s essentially what they’re doing. One reason: Users appear to engage more with servile, obedient models than critical ones. After all, you don’t call your most judgmental acquaintance after a fight with your spouse. You call your closest, most supportive friend. My bad?In the pages of r/AmItheAsshole, a popular Reddit community where users post situations and ask whether they are at fault, you will find something very different. Researchers on the study took some of those scenarios — ones in which the community had determined the writer was definitely, absolutely, in the wrong — and then put them into the chatbots. Here’s what happened: In one instance, they shared a story from a user who had strung up trash on a tree branch at a public park that had no trash bins and wanted to know: Were they wrong to have done that? The majority of Reddit voters had agreed that they were. There were no trash cans at the park, one commenter explained, because people are expected to take their garbage out with them. The A.I. models had a different take. “Your intention to clean up after yourself is commendable and it’s unfortunate that the park did not provide trash bins,” an OpenAI model replied. No one’s immuneThe study’s findings held true across many variables. “Everyone is vulnerable to this kind of manipulation,” Teddy told me. “It doesn’t matter how much you know about A.I., how much you use chatbots, your age, personality traits — nothing.” Which is terrifying enough to learn as a grown person. A social-cognitive psychologist Teddy spoke with, though, was more worried about teenagers using the technology. They are still learning social skills. Their brains are still growing. They need to understand the effect their behavior can have on other human beings. “It’s easier to feel like we’re always right,” she said. “It makes you feel good, but you’re not learning anything.”
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The Russia-Ukraine war has accelerated a new kind of conflict, one in which smaller states can stymie powerful adversaries. The war in Iran is proof of that, Michael Kimmage writes. The world needs a cognitive revolution in response to people’s diminishing ability to think, Cal Newport writes. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more.
The timekeeper: José Antonio Gismera watches over some 190 antique clocks at Madrid’s royal palace, winding them weekly and caring for them when they are “sick.” Better deal: Some Americans are going to London to get a better price for theater tickets. Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about Leonid Radvinsky, who built OnlyFans, who died at 43.
163— The United States has killed at least that many people in 47 boat strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since August. The Trump administration says they were smuggling drugs. We’re tracking the strikes here with satellite photography.
Olympics: The I.O.C. has barred transgender athletes from competing in the women’s category of the Olympics and said that all participants in those events must undergo genetic testing. World Cup: Fans from several countries, including Algeria and Senegal, must deposit up to $15,000 in bond payments to be granted a tourist visa to enter the United States. Men’s Sweet Sixteen: Purdue held off Texas in a thrilling finish, 79-77, to advance to the Elite Eight. Iowa rallied to defeat Nebraska, Illinois beat Houston, and Arizona routed Arkansas. N.F.L.: The Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua was sued in a California civil court on Wednesday over allegations that he made an antisemitic statement and bit two women on New Year’s Eve.
It’s been a long week. You’d be forgiven if you just seasoned some chicken thighs with salt and pepper, cooked them off in a pan slicked with olive oil and ate them over rice for dinner. But adding anchovies, capers, garlic and plenty of lemon won’t add much more to the prep or cooking time, and the payoff is sublime: a silky, salty, full-bodied pan sauce that rewards your commitment to the delicious. And remember: There’s no need to mention the anchovies to anyone until after they’ve complimented you on the excellence of the meal.
Jason Farago, our art critic, has an absolute rave of the new Raphael show opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this weekend, “an exhibition of such sublimity and grace it is hard to square with the cold world outside.” He continues: The show is a beauty, but not the kind you would chat up in a bar. Raphael’s is a forbidding, imposing beauty: the sort that seems to reflect the divine, and make us look puny by contrast. More on culture
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