As a dyslexic writer, tackling a word like sycophancy is a bit of a nightmare. But while New York’s Attorney General is legally subpoenaing Big Tech over "model sycophancy," the true crisis is cultural. By default, Silicon Valley AI is engineered for positive politeness—flooding users with unearned compliments and boundary-trampling validation. But outside the US, human relationships thrive on self-deprecation, modesty maxims, and negative politeness. When an AI mimics human relationship dynamics but completely ignores deep-rooted cultural cues, it creates a massive offboarding risk. A mature product must learn when to adapt, when to create boundaries, and when to stop talking like a California wellness retreat.