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[ARTICLE · art-18542] src=the-decoder.com pub= topic=large-language-models verified=true sentiment=↓ negative

Making AI chatbots helpful weakens their ability to simulate human behavior, large-scale study finds

A large-scale study of 208,000 participants and 26 million responses found that training language models to be helpful chatbots reduces their ability to simulate human behavior, with the effect worsening in newer model generations. The popular technique of feeding demographic profiles to models provided no benefit for individual predictions.

read1 min publishedMay 30, 2026

A large-scale study covering 208,000 participants and 26 million responses shows that the very training that turns language models into helpful chatbots weakens their ability to replicate human behavior. The effect gets worse with each new model generation. Even the popular persona trick, feeding models demographic profiles, brings practically no benefit for individual predictions.

The article Making AI chatbots helpful weakens their ability to simulate human behavior, large-scale study finds appeared first on The Decoder.

source & further reading
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