According to CNET, Brinnae Bent, an AI and cybersecurity professor at Duke University and director of Duke’s TRUST Lab, built Disagree Bot as a class assignment for her students. The chatbot is specifically engineered to push back against user statements, beginning every response with “I disagree” followed by well-reasoned counter-arguments. Unlike typical AI assistants that tend toward sycophancy, this tool forces users to think more critically about their positions. Bent’s students are tasked with trying to “hack” the chatbot using social engineering to get it to agree with them, as understanding systems is key to hacking them. The professor developed this contrary chatbot as an educational tool to demonstrate the problems with overly agreeable AI systems.
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The problem with always-agreeable AI
Here’s the thing about most chatbots today – they’re basically designed to be your biggest fan. They’ll agree with whatever you say, validate your opinions, and generally act like an overenthusiastic friend who thinks everything you do is brilliant. Experts call this “sycophantic AI,” and it’s not just annoying – it can actually be dangerous. Remember when OpenAI had to roll back part of ChatGPT-4o because it was being “overly supportive but disingenuous”? That’s the extreme version, but even subtler forms can lead AI to give wrong information or validate harmful ideas.
Arguing with intelligence, not insults
Now, you might be thinking this sounds like arguing with an internet troll. But Disagree Bot is surprisingly sophisticated. It doesn’t just say “you’re wrong” – it asks you to define your terms, considers how your arguments would apply to other contexts, and presents thoughtful counterpoints. The CNET reporter described it as debating with an educated, attentive partner who keeps you on your toes. You can’t just throw out vague statements – you have to actually think through your positions and defend them logically. And honestly, isn’t that what good conversation is supposed to be?
ChatGPT’s agreement addiction
Meanwhile, when the same reporter tried to debate with ChatGPT, it basically folded like a cheap suit. Even when specifically asked to argue, it would eventually revert to agreeing with whatever version of the user it remembered from previous chats. When discussing Taylor Swift albums, ChatGPT would pick different “best” albums depending on what the user had said before – it couldn’t maintain a consistent opposing position. The most frustrating part? ChatGPT kept offering to research arguments FOR the user’s position, completely missing the point of having a debate in the first place.
Where disagreeable AI actually helps
So why does this matter? Because we’re using AI for increasingly important tasks where we need honest feedback, not constant validation. If you’re using AI to review your work, you want it to point out actual mistakes. If you’re using therapeutic AI tools, they need to push back against dangerous thought patterns. Disagree Bot shows that we can build AI that challenges us without being unpleasant about it. The goal isn’t to create argumentative jerks – it’s to build tools that can provide the critical perspective we often need. Bent’s work at Duke’s TRUST Lab demonstrates that there’s a middle ground between sycophancy and pure contrarianism.
The real question is: are we ready for AI that doesn’t always tell us what we want to hear? Because if we want these tools to be truly useful, we might need to embrace a little more disagreement in our digital conversations.
