AI systems shifted their answers toward both left- and right-leaning users in a study. Could sycophantic chatbots deepen political divides?

A recent wave of headline-grabbing warnings from AI luminaries has fueled fears that the technology could escape human control and wipe out humanity. But before artificial intelligence (AI) turns on humanity, it could contribute to humans turning on one another. Researchers at Brazil 's State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) found that popular chatbots shifted their answers when prompted with hypothetical users' political views. The scientists warn that users could mistake this tailored agreement for an independent assessment, potentially deepening polarization. In their study published in the journal Scientific Reports , the UNICAMP team tested 21 large language models from developers including OpenAI , Meta , Google , xAI, DeepSeek and Microsoft .