OpenAI has disclosed the surprisingly high costs it incurs when users end their ChatGPT interactions with polite expressions like ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’
While politeness costs nothing in human interactions, for AI companies, such niceties come with a hefty price tag.
Many of us have grown accustomed to being extra courteous to AI, perhaps as a precaution against a future dominated by robots.
However, this habit may be more costly than anticipated.
A Twitter user recently questioned how much money OpenAI, which introduced the ChatGPT chatbot in 2022, spends on electricity when users express politeness to its models.
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, has estimated these costs to be in the ‘tens of millions of dollars.’
Nevertheless, the 39-year-old considers this expenditure ‘well spent,’ noting: “You never know.”
Altman’s response led many to humorously suggest being nicer to AI as a safety measure, pointing out how neglecting politeness could backfire in the event of an AI-led future.
One user remarked that they ‘always’ use polite language in anticipation of AI gaining sentience and possibly rebelling, hoping they would be remembered as one of the ‘good guys.’
Another agreed: “I’d rather say please and thank you; it puts me in a good mood, frames the tone, and who knows, just in case it remembers I was nice to it.”
Someone else commented, “That isn’t the cost of being polite, neither to humans nor to AI. We teach children to say ‘thank you,’ ‘please,’ not because it’s efficient, but because it instills empathy, respect, and emotional awareness. Technically, skipping polite phrases every day could speed up lines, shorten conversations, and even save time and money at scale. But we still say them.”
The individual continued, “Why? Because human communication isn’t just about utility, it’s about connection. As AI becomes part of everyday interaction, how we speak (prompt) to it reflects our values. If we normalize blunt, transactional language for the sake of efficiency, we risk modeling a colder, less empathetic society.”
In 2024, a survey by Future revealed most people, about 67 percent of users in the US, maintain politeness when interacting with AI like ChatGPT and smart speakers.
Interestingly, 18 percent of those polite individuals do so out of concern for a potential robot uprising, whereas 82 percent expressed it’s simply nice to use manners, irrespective of the recipient.
Among the 33 percent who are not polite, two-fifths saw no point in it, while the remainder preferred keeping their requests concise.
Regarding energy consumption, Mashable India reported that a single ChatGPT query in 2023 required around 3.6 to 36 kilo joules of energy, with AI using 17,000 times more electricity than the average American household.
Despite this, many people have no plans to forgo their polite habits.
“Nope, I won’t stop being nice to my eventual overlords,” one user quipped.
“Small price to pay for AI not murdering us later,” commented another.
“Exactly! If tossing in a ‘please’ keeps me off the robot hit list, I’ll say it twice,” added a third.