Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, stated on social media platform X that incorporating polite expressions like "please" and "thank you" costs the company tens of millions of dollars. This information is reported by Futurism.

While polite interactions with chatbots may seem trivial, some AI architects consider it beneficial. For instance, Microsoft’s Curtis Beavers claims that proper etiquette "helps generate more useful outcomes."

A survey conducted at the end of 2024 revealed that 67% of respondents in the US reported being polite when interacting with chatbots. Among them, 55% said they do it "because it’s the right thing to do," while 12% indicated it was to calm the algorithm in case of an AI uprising.

Although many experts assert that we are far from an AI revolution, the politeness of users may already have significant ecological consequences.

A study by the Washington Post, in collaboration with researchers from the University of California, examined the energy implications of generating a 100-word email. They found that producing one email requires 0.14 kilowatt-hours of energy, enough to power 14 LED bulbs for one hour. Sending one email a week over a year already consumes 7.5 kWh.

Data centers that power these chatbots currently consume about 2% of the world’s energy, and this figure is expected to rise.