Is Your AI Just Flattering You? Sycophancy, AI Policies, and More, with Dr. Malihe Alikhani

Only 19% of Americans say AI has actually improved their productivity - so why the gap between the hype and reality? In this episode of Women in AI Research, Dr. Malihe Alikhani (Northeastern University, Contextual AI Lab) unpacks the hidden failures in how we build and deploy AI: why sycophancy is really a collapse of alignment, why bigger models aren't better aligned, and why "thin" alignment breaks down in the real world. Key topics The impact of moving across different AI contexts on system design The role of language as performative and active in shaping reality Interactive inference and