Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, recently admitted that people saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT has cost the company millions of dollars. When asked on social media about the financial impact of users being polite to AI models, Altman responded, “Tens of millions of dollars well spent—you never know.”
While it may seem trivial to use polite language with an AI chatbot, some experts believe it can lead to better outputs. Kurtis Beavers, a director on Microsoft’s design team for Copilot, noted that using basic etiquette when interacting with AI helps generate respectful and collaborative responses.
He suggested that polite interactions not only foster gracious replies but also improve the AI’s overall performance and responsiveness. A survey revealed that a significant number of people maintain politeness when engaging with AI. Approximately 67% of users in the United States and 71% in the United Kingdom reported being polite to AI systems.
The survey, which included over 1,000 respondents, also found that around two-thirds of people tend to be impolite to AI for the sake of brevity.
Politeness impacting AI costs and energy
Additionally, about 12% of respondents admitted to being polite out of fear of future consequences.
Generative AI is known to consume substantial amounts of energy, particularly during the model training phase. The discussion surrounding AI and etiquette highlights the social and financial aspects of how we interact with these increasingly prevalent technologies. As AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives, the environmental impact of these systems is becoming more apparent.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of California examined the energy required to generate a 100-word email using AI. They found that a single email consumes 0.14 kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 14 LED lights for an hour. Sending one AI-generated email per week for a year would use 7.5kWh, equivalent to the hourly electricity consumption of nine households in Washington, D.C.
Considering the thousands of lengthy prompts fed to chatbots like ChatGPT daily, the energy consumption and environmental consequences are significant.
Data centers used to power these chatbots already consume a considerable portion of the world’s energy, and this number is expected to increase as AI becomes more prevalent in our daily lives.
Image Credits: Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Johannah Lopez is a versatile professional who seamlessly navigates two worlds. By day, she excels as a SaaS freelance writer, crafting informative and persuasive content for tech companies. By night, she showcases her vibrant personality and customer service skills as a part-time bartender. Johannah's ability to blend her writing expertise with her social finesse makes her a well-rounded and engaging storyteller in any setting.
