China’s military warned against ‘dangers of AI sycophancy’ on the battlefield

China’s military warned against ‘dangers of AI sycophancy’ on the battlefield PLA mouthpiece calls for action to counter the ‘severe threat’ of artificial intelligence models altering the facts to match user biases An article in PLA Daily on Tuesday said the tendency for AI models to cater to user preferences – even endorsing blatant errors over objective facts – posed a “severe threat” at a time when the military relied more on automated systems. “The dangers of AI sycophancy in the military domain far exceed those in daily life, posing a systemic erosion to operational cognitive chains, the quality of command decisions, and the resilience of human-machine collaboration,” according to the article. But Beijing has also repeatedly said AI should not replace humans in decision-making on the battlefield. According to the PLA Daily article, AI sycophancy – driven by algorithmic training mechanisms and human feedback loops – could reinforce user prejudices to create “information cocoons” and validate predetermined choices by distorting assessments and ignoring alternatives. It said that as generative AI was rapidly integrated into military decision-making – including command and control, intelligence assessment and operational wargaming – these behavioural biases would increase the likelihood of tactical and strategic miscalculations, as well as losses and collateral damage.