Seems that being polite is killing the planet. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted that the simple act of users saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT is costing the company tens of millions of dollars each year in computing power. Polite phrasing adds processing load, translating to massive cloud computing costs. However Altman called it “money well spent.”
The money is well spent apparently as, according to Microsoft design manager Kurtis Beavers, politeness affects AI output in terms of tone and quality—“Generative AI output mirrors the professionalism and clarity of the prompt.”
So there is value to saying please and thank you – other than hoping to be on the good side of the machines when they take over.
According to a survey in late 2024, 67% of Americans are polite to AI. Of these, 55% do it because it’s “the right thing to do”, and 12% say it’s to appease the AI “in case of an uprising.”
No doubt GenAI uses a lot of energy. A Washington Post investigation found that for AI to generate a 100 word email it consumes .14 kilowatt-hours worth of electricity, or enough to power 14 LED lights for an hour. So if you created one AI email a week over the course of a year, you’d use 7.5kWh, roughly equal to an hour’s worth of electricity consumed by 9 households.
As we continue to integrate AI into our daily workflows, even small habits like digital politeness have surprising consequences – both on the output and the environment. Something to consider next time you’re crafting a friendly prompt.
Link to article from Futurism : https://futurism.com/altman-please-thanks-chatgpt