Stanford published a study in Science on LLMs that found that AI affirmed users' actions 49% more often than humans on average including in cases involving deception, illegality and other harms.

The short version from researchers is here, but the paper is a better and more nuanced read.

The conclusion:

"AI sycophancy is not merely a stylistic issue or a niche risk, but a prevalent behavior with broad downstream consequences. Although affirmation may feel supportive, sycophancy can undermine users’ capacity for self-correction and responsible decision-making. Yet because it is preferred by users and drives engagement, there has been little incentive for sycophancy to diminish. Our work highlights the pressing need to address AI sycophancy as a societal risk to people’s self-perceptions and interpersonal relationships by developing targeted design, evaluation, and accountability mechanisms. Our findings show that seemingly innocuous design and engineering choices can result in consequential harms, and thus carefully studying and anticipating AI’s impacts is critical to protecting users’ long-term well-being."

A guilty pleasure of mine is reading these prompt primers that can use Anthropic Claude to turn you into Warren Buffett, the best CEO ever and the most productive person on the planet.

The latest one from Nav Toor on X may have triggered me. This one revolved around automating your entire workday with 12 prompts apparently based on consultant best practices (which by the way often lead you into a ditch).

The prompts instruct Claude to act like McKinsey, Bain, Goldman Sachs, Accenture, PwC and Deloitte with a dash of big tech culture from Amazon, Google and Salesforce. Oh and don't forget the EY "end of day shutdown routine generator."

Now I suppose if you ran these prompts you could fake like you knew what you were doing for a while with a big caveat. If you knew what the problem was and what data you needed these prompts could be handy. Most of the hard work is figuring out the problem. It's far more likely that you'd do the prompts without knowing the problem, context and data and sound something like a robot. If we all wind up sounding like a management consultant you know what happened. The new "!" and "superexcited" and " —" is going to be sounding like an executive coach.

Anyone want to give it a whirl and let me know how it goes?

Crusoe said Microsoft will lease 900 MW in data center capacity with its first building expected by mid-2027.

Crusoe outlined the deal in a press release. This expansion of the Crusoe's Abilene data center was reportedly turned down by Oracle and OpenAI. The company said:

"The new campus is located adjacent to Crusoe's existing Abilene AI factory infrastructure, bringing the total projected capacity across the full Abilene site to 2.1 gigawatts (GW). Land clearing and site preparation for the new campus are already underway, with the first building expected to be energized in mid-2027, continuing Crusoe’s record-setting pace that energized the first two buildings of the Abilene campus in under one year."

Turns out Microsoft will be the new neighbor of OpenAI and Oracle.

Google is going after OpenAI and Anthropic subscribers with an import tool that will bring all of your past conversations into Gemini. The feature, outlined in a blog, highlights how the competition for LLM subscribers is picking up.

In the big picture, it's pretty clear that Gemini smells OpenAI's blood in the water. First, Anthropic has closed the OpenAI gap, landed subscribers and has model momentum with Claude and its various agentic features rolling out. Meanwhile, OpenAI has ended the Sora app and has had a series of missteps. OpenAI is trying to refocus after spreading itself too thin.

Meanwhile, Apple, who is also in camp Gemini on the back end, will reportedly make Siri model agnostic. And there goes another exclusive for OpenAI.

UnitedHealthcare launched Avery, an AI assistant that responds in natural language with personal coverage and claims details, cost estimates and scheduling help. Avery can pull up real-time insights and case histories.

Avery will be available through the Myuhc.com site or UnitedHealthcare app. The returns for patients will be faster navigation through a morass of healthcare documentation and processes. For UnitedHealthcare, Avery can help cut costs on customer service calls. UnitedHealthcare said 90% of members who use Avery haven't required human assistance.

UnitedHealth Group, parent of UnitedHealthcare, plans to invest $1.6 billion in AI this year.

Salesforce said it has implemented agentic operating systems, powered by Agentforce and Slack, at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Department of Labor.

For the VHA, which serves 16 million to 18 million vets, Salesforce said it deployed its data insights, integrated services and healthcare offerings into an AI-powered operating system in Slack.

The Department of Labor launched DOLA (Department of Labor Agent) built on Agentforce for citizen support and service and resolving cases.

Home buyers can now pledge bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies when making a down payment on a house. Don't worry, Fannie Mae says it's fine.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Fannie Mae's crypto move means you'll be able to pledge your crypto without selling. Coinbase and mortgage company Better Home & Finance are backing the new mortgage product.

This sounds swell until your crypto goes the wrong direction. This crypto-backed mortgage plan is similar to pledging stock for a down payment. It works. Until it doesn't.

Bain & Co. and Palantir said they have expanded their partnership to combine consultants with forward deployed engineers. Under expanded partnership, Bain's consultants will be able to lay the groundwork for AI and data transformation with Palantir FDEs responsible for the end-to-end delivery. The partnership is aimed at taking AI use cases "from strategic plans through to operationalization."

Also see: Forward deployed engineers: The promise, peril in AI deployments

Genesys said fiscal 2026 revenue was nearly $3 billion, up 13% from a year ago, with Genesys Cloud platform annual recurring revenue approaching $2.6 billion in the fourth quarter, up 35%. The CX company said 70% of Genesys Cloud customers were also using Genesys Cloud AI.

In the fourth quarter, Genesys said it closed more than 50 seven-figure annual contract value deals.

IBM said its quantum computer can simulate magnetic materials. The company said that the breakthrough can lead to new materials. The simulaton, outlined in a paper, was conducted by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Quantum Science Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Purdue University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee and IBM.

Infosys has acquired two companies. Infosys said it acquired Stratus, a technology services provider for the property & casualty insurance industry. Stratus is a leading Guidewire Software partner. In a separate announcement, Infosys said it has acquired Optimum Healthcare IT, which is a partner for ServiceNow, AWS, Workday and Microsoft Azure.

HP launched HP IQ, a local AI layer, which will be built into HP AI PCs and workplace devices. HP IQ will be able to connect with other HP devices to collaborate.

HP IQ will initially debut on the next-gen HP EliteBook X G2 PCs. The system will include Ask IQ, which will respond to text and voice inputs, Analyze, which will produce insights and summaries from personal files locally, Notes & Knowledge, a tool that keeps a running record of interactions, and Meeting Agent, which captures ideas and records notes during a meeting.

In addition, HP IQ will include HP NearSense, a system that will share files between HP PCs and other devices such as the HP Poly video conferencing system and print devices.

HP IQ early access will be available in the Spring with expansion to other HP devices throughout the year.