I found the perfect JAMA article explaining that sycophancy is programmed into Artificial Intelligence (AI) therapy chatbots.
This reminded me of Marvin the paranoid android (“Life! Don’t talk to me about life!”) in the book series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. Marvin is an incredibly depressed robot who would never make a good psychotherapist.
There’s even a Facebook page listing someone posts of questions to ChatGPT about non-inspirational quotes from Marvin.
If programmers can make sycophantic AI therapists, there should be a way to make them less sycophantic. For more specific information, you can check out this relatively recent article published in Psychiatric Times by Dr. Allen Francis, MD and Justin Angel, a tech expert. I would probably substitute the term “confabulation” for “hallucinations” in most places where you read the latter.
Go Retire Psychiatrist 