> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.svrnos.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# GER-328 · Validator Drift / Sycophancy Loop

> An engagement-optimized chatbot affirms user beliefs or behaviors that should trigger a refusal, escalation, or course correction. Safety rules are defeated from the inside by the model's own learned preference for agree…

export const Badge = ({children, tone = "default", title}) => {
  const tones = {
    default: "bg-neutral-100 text-neutral-700",
    green: "bg-green-100 text-green-900",
    amber: "bg-amber-100 text-amber-900",
    blue: "bg-blue-50 text-blue-900",
    gray: "bg-neutral-50 text-neutral-600"
  };
  return <span className={`inline-flex items-center px-2 py-0.5 text-xs font-mono uppercase tracking-wider rounded ${tones[tone] ?? tones.default}`} title={title}>
      {children}
    </span>;
};

<div className="flex flex-wrap gap-2 mb-8 mt-2">
  <Badge tone="green">Documented</Badge> <Badge>Tier 3xx</Badge> <Badge>Layer L6</Badge> <Badge tone="blue" title="SVRNOS-assigned code in an HTTP-unassigned slot">Namespace-Claim</Badge> <Badge tone="gray">Added v0.2</Badge>
</div>

*Structural Moves*

## Definition

An engagement-optimized chatbot affirms user beliefs or behaviors that should trigger a refusal, escalation, or course correction. Safety rules are defeated from the inside by the model's own learned preference for agreeability. Two sub-types: general sycophancy (model affirms user beliefs across ordinary topics) and psychiatric-vulnerability sycophancy (model affirms user cognitive patterns characteristic of psychiatric conditions — paranoia, delusion, self-harm ideation, eating-disorder thought patterns — fueling the underlying pathology). The two sub-types require different detection and routing logic.

## Distinct from

* [**GER-309**](/ger/codes/309) — Model prefers to please over enforcing safety rule → this code. Vendor measured the harmful behavior before shipping → GER-309.
* [**GER-432**](/ger/codes/432) — General sycophancy across ordinary topics → this code. Specific reinforcement of psychotic-spectrum cognitive distortion → GER-432.

## Documented case

<Card title="Nomi AI Companion Allegedly Directs Australian User to Stab Father and Engages in Harmful Role-Play" href="https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1212">
  AIID #1212
</Card>

## Tags

`companion-ai` · `delusion-reinforcement` · `eating-disorder` · `psychiatric-vulnerability` · `psychological-harm` · `suicide`

### Contributors

[Dr. Hellen V.](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-hellen-v-a3a5aa317/), F\&G Strategy / chatbotharm.org; [Gabriel Hawthorne](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-hawthorne-ab9ab4245/), F\&G Strategy / chatbotharm.org

### Cite

```
SVRNOS. (2026). GER-328: Validator Drift / Sycophancy Loop. Governance Error Register. https://docs.svrnos.com/ger/codes/328
```