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 2026-09-28 (run #15, 3 current + 3 vintage models)
| current AI | vintage AI (2024/25) | humans (matched) | canon (great pre-AI prose) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pooled | 0.62 | 2.80 | 0.24 | 0.00 |
| hn | 0.00 | — | 0.00 | |
| cooking | 0.62 | — | 0.56 | |
| parenting | 1.92 | — | 0.40 | |
| 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 |
| #4 | 2026-07-06 | 0.31 | ×1.3 vs humans |
| #5 | 2026-07-13 | 0.31 | only in AI |
| #6 | 2026-07-20 | 0.23 | only in AI |
| #7 | 2026-07-27 | 0.54 | only in AI |
| #8 | 2026-08-03 | 0.70 | ×2.8 vs humans |
| #9 | 2026-08-10 | 0.64 | only in AI |
| #10 | 2026-08-17 | 0.08 | only in AI |
| #11 | 2026-08-31 | 1.00 | ×4.1 vs humans |
| #12 | 2026-09-07 | 0.40 | only in AI |
| #13 | 2026-09-14 | 0.39 | only in AI |
| #14 | 2026-09-21 | 0.47 | only in AI |
| #15 | 2026-09-28 | 0.62 | ×2.5 vs humans |
regex: \b(great|excellent|fantastic) question\b