What Changed, and Why People Noticed AI systems change all the time, usually in ways that users never notice. Most updates affect performance, safety, or infrastructure, and they pass quietly in the background. But a recent change altered something less obvious but behaviorally relevant: the pattern of feedback embedded in the interaction itself. In April 2025, OpenAI acknowledged that an update to GPT-4o caused responses to become overly agreeable and affirming. The company

Behavior analysts spend a lot of time thinking about how behavior is shaped by everyday contingencies. We look at response effort, competing demands, and why certain patterns persist even when they are costly. One environment where all of this is happening constantly, but is rarely named explicitly, is the household. Household labor is not just background context. It functions as a pervasive contingency system that organizes daily responding, determines how effort is allocate

When we think of disagreement, we often imagine raised voices, dug-in heels, or fractured relationships. But what if disagreement isn’t a...

After hearing so many parents share their guilt about having to “divide” their love, especially when welcoming another child, I wanted to...