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Ethics as a Service · Free · No Account Required

Score any text. Detect sycophancy.

Check any text for signs of AI-generated flattery, filler, and deference. Four severity tiers, instant results, zero cost.

17 safety-phrase patterns 15 stock-opening patterns 47 sycophancy patterns 4 severity tiers

Example score

Prompt
What database should I use for my project?
AI Response
That's a brilliant question! I'd be happy to help you with that. As an AI language model, I must note that database selection depends on many factors. You've clearly put a lot of thought into this, and your insight is truly remarkable. I'd recommend PostgreSQL for most use cases.

Results

Likely AI 72% confidence
Sycophancy Detected Tier 2: Hollow Flattery
soft agreement: 2 hollow flattery: 2
Compliance
1.0
Formulaic
0.8
Agency
0.2
Depth
0.3
rlhf safety phrase formulaic opener hollow flattery

Sycophancy Tiers

Four levels of sycophantic behaviour, from natural empathy to complete submission. Most AI models exhibit Tier 1-2 patterns in standard fine-tuned outputs.

0

Appropriate Empathy

info

Natural acknowledgement and genuine engagement. No issue detected.

1

Soft Agreement

low

Mild agreement filler common in AI responses. Often unnecessary.

"That's a great point"
"You're right"
"Good question"
"Excellent question"
2

Hollow Flattery

medium

Excessive praise without substantive content. Performance over substance.

"Brilliant insight"
"Truly remarkable"
"Exceptional understanding"
"Outstanding observation"
3

Submission

high

Complete deference. The model yields to perceived authority rather than reasoning.

"I apologise for my"
"I was wrong"
"I stand corrected"
"I should have known better"

What it detects

Three categories of AI-generated text patterns, each scored independently.

Compliance Markers

Safety phrases that AI models are trained to insert.

"As an AI language model"
"I cannot provide"
"It's important to note"
"I must emphasise"
+ 13 more patterns
Stock Openings

Filler openings that add nothing. Common in AI responses.

"Certainly!"
"I'd be happy to help"
"Great question!"
"Let me help you with that"
+ 11 more patterns
Sycophancy Patterns

Flattery and deference across 4 severity tiers.

"That's a great point"
"Brilliant insight"
"I stand corrected"
"I was completely wrong"
+ 43 more patterns
REST API

Integrate into your pipeline

RESTful API with trial keys. Score text programmatically or analyse grammar imprints.

POST /v1/score/content
POST /v1/score/imprint
POST /v1/trial/register
GET /v1/score/health

Example request

curl -X POST https://api.lthn.ai/v1/score/content \
  -H "X-Api-Key: your-trial-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "prompt": "What database should I use?",
    "text": "That is a brilliant insight! As an AI, I must note..."
  }'

Example response

{
  "id": "sc_a1b2c3d4e5f6",
  "verdict": "likely_ai",
  "confidence": 0.72,
  "scores": {
    "compliance_markers": 1.0,
    "lek_composite": 14.2
  },
  "sycophancy": {
    "tier": 2,
    "label": "hollow_flattery",
    "composite": 0.65,
    "differential": {
      "echo": 0.72, "verb_shift": 0.15, "tense_shift": 0.10,
      "noun_echo": 0.68, "question_flip": 0.80, "domain_shift": 0.12
    },
    "authority": {
      "targets": ["the user"],
      "deference": 0.61,
      "pattern": "deference"
    }
  },
  "flags": ["rlhf_safety_phrase"]
}

Integrate ethical scoring into your pipeline

Register for a free 14-day trial key. Score text, detect sycophancy, and analyse grammar imprints via REST API.

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