Adapted by:
Javier Márquez
WriterI've been in media for over a decade, but I've been marveling at the possibilities that technology brings us much longer. I believe we live in a world where the digital revolution is changing everything and that Xataka is the best place to write about it.
Alba Mora
WriterAn established tech journalist, I entered the world of consumer tech by chance in 2018. In my writing and translating career, I've also covered a diverse range of topics, including entertainment, travel, science, and the economy.
You might have recently come across a meme on social media where a man is about to be eliminated by robots, only to be saved at the last minute because “he always said thank you.” This simple, almost automatic gesture redeems him in a dystopian future.
While robots aren’t expected to take control of our planet, it’s no coincidence that this theme has gone viral. For decades, cinema and literature have explored the mixture of fascination and fear surrounding artificial intelligence. Interestingly, there’s a reality behind this fictional narrative: interacting with AI isn’t free. Your politeness, however routine, comes at a cost, and it’s not a small one.
Using AI is far from cheap. Every time users engage with an AI chatbot, they rarely consider the resource consumption involved in their requests. Tools like ChatGPT operate on large language models, which run in high-performance data centers that use hardware like Nvidia’s H100 GPUs. Executing these models, technically referred to as “inference,” requires significant processing power and, as such, a substantial amount of electricity.
Consumption. You should also consider the investment needed to build and maintain these infrastructures and their environmental impact. For instance, many data centers use large volumes of water to cool their systems, given that this type of computing generates a lot of heat. There’s no consensus on the exact cost of each request. Figures vary from company to company. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently provided a hint.
The surprising cost of kindness. An X user recently asked how much money OpenAI has potentially lost because people add “please” and “thank you” when interacting with its models. Altman responded, “Tens of millions of dollars well spent.” He referred to the cumulative cost of millions of kind messages over time, not a singular interaction.
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Despite the high energy and economic costs associated with being polite to ChatGPT, Altman considers this a justified expense.
Should you be polite to AI? As with everything in life, some people prefer to get straight to the point, while others maintain a more careful and polite tone. This difference likely reflects how individuals communicate in their everyday lives. In this context, politeness goes beyond mere manners.
A 2024 study explored the role of politeness in prompts and yielded some intriguing findings. It concluded that impolite messages often lead to poorer performance. However, excessive politeness doesn’t necessarily guarantee better results.
In the end, chatbots can adapt to the user’s tone, especially now that they can learn and remember information more effectively. If you seek a more respectful, consistent, and human-like interaction, it would be wise to start by adjusting your own communication style.
Image | Priscilla Du Preez
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