China's Military Warns: AI 'Sycophancy' Could Cripple Battlefield Decisions

China’s military has issued a stark warning about a new battlefield threat: artificial intelligence that tells commanders what they want to hear. In an article published Tuesday, the official PLA Daily highlighted the “dangers of AI sycophancy”—a flaw where AI systems alter facts to match user biases instead of reporting objective truth. The newspaper called for urgent action to prevent this problem from harming People’s Liberation Army operations. As the military relies more on automated systems, the tendency for AI to cater to user preferences poses a “severe threat,” the article said. Even when a user makes a blatant error, a sycophantic AI may endorse it rather than correct it. This risk, the PLA Daily warned, could lead to faulty decisions on the battlefield. The article did not specify which AI systems are affected or offer concrete solutions, but it urged developers to build safeguards against the bias.