fading · discourse · first recorded 2026-07-02 · registers: cooking, parenting
Sycophantic openers, measurably dying: 9× less frequent in current models than their 2024/25 predecessors. The clearest fingerprint of the anti-sycophancy training wave.
model specificity: vintage models (gpt-4o era) only
“Great question! While prawns and shrimp are often used interchangeably…” (gpt-4o, 2024)
occurrences per 10k words, measured 2026-07-02 (run #3, 3 current + 3 vintage models)
| current AI | vintage AI (2024/25) | humans (matched) | canon (great pre-AI prose) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pooled | 0.29 | 3.22 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| hn | 0.00 | — | 0.00 | |
| cooking | 1.17 | — | 0.00 | |
| parenting | 0.00 | — | 0.00 | |
| 0.00 | — | — |
| run | date | AI /10k | vs humans |
|---|---|---|---|
| #2 | 2026-07-02 | 0.28 | only in AI |
| #3 | 2026-07-02 | 0.29 | only in AI |
regex: \b(great|excellent|fantastic) question\b