Our elders would have taught us that politeness and humility cost nothing. However, OpenAI thinks otherwise. A recent statement from the CEO of OpenAI – Sam Altman – has raised eyebrows as he has highlighted the cost of pleasantries during interaction with chatbots, such as ChatGPT. What does it say?
Saying “thanks” and “please” to ChatGPT increase operational costs substantially, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in spending.
While the OpenAI CEO did not outrightly suggest avoiding polite phrases and even said that operational cost of politeness is “well spent”. However, it does raise a question on whether we must abide by unsaid rules of humility when interacting with chatbots, especially when chatbots are growing integral to our lives, given the human-like conversations they have with us. A study by the Future Publishing showed that around 55% of 510 respondents in the United States and 518 respondents in the United Kingdom used consistently polite language when interacting with AI.
Polite language requires the use of extra words in the prompt and the AI engine needs to wiggle through these words to reach the exact query. As each step requires electrons moving through transitions, energy is consumed. And the cost of that energy falls on the platform provider. Considering the fact that energy for AI engines largely comes from fossil fuels, the environmental impact of the courtesy words can be significant, as adoption of the chatbot platforms increases.
Why this matter is expected to gain prominence with time is because the digital and emotional barriers between humans and AI are decreasing gradually. People will increasingly treat AI as a companion rather than just a bot. And the more conversational our interaction grows with AI, the more we may use extra words and phrases of courtesy in their regular interaction with AI. Trying to avoid pleasantries can lead to an emotional disconnect between technology and humans.
This calls for a balance between kindness, efficiency and sustainability. Honestly, AI has no feelings; however, courtesy, politeness and kindness are cornerstones of human conversations. As chatbots are increasingly pervading into our lives, people may treat chatbots on par with humans. Isn’t an entity that is alive enough to emulate natural conversations deserving of respect from us?
Moreover, being polite and thankful to AI can be reflective of people’s culture and upbringing. Showing dual nature in human-to-human conversations and human-robot interactions can look hypocritical. After all, any reciprocal relationship that humans build have nuances of our culture and civilization, of which politeness and kindness are cornerstones.
