Are you polite to artificial intelligence? It’s costing a lot: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT — made a surprising statement this week when he said that polite language toward chatbots, including phrases like “please” and “thank you,” wastes tens of millions of dollars. According to him, politeness toward AI is not only culturally meaningless, but it also comes with a significant economic and environmental cost. He stated: “We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars well spent” — a comment that raises questions about the boundaries between humanity and technological efficiency.
Saying “please” or “thank you” might seem like a minor habit, but it requires the system to interpret, process, and formulate a full response — sometimes to long and complex texts. Each such interaction demands electricity and expensive computation time at advanced data centers. These centers, according to reports, already consume about 2 percent of global electricity usage — a figure that could spike as AI becomes integrated into daily tasks.
While many users view politeness toward AI as a cultural norm or a way to improve response quality, Altman offers a more pragmatic and slightly darker perspective. He claims there is no practical justification for the unnecessary use of polite words, especially when dealing with a machine that lacks self-awareness, doesn’t feel, and doesn’t get offended. With a hint of humor, he added: “You never know” — perhaps hinting at a future where artificial consciousness might truly understand our words.
A survey conducted at the end of 2024 found that 67 percent of Americans use polite language when talking to AI. Of those, 55 percent said it’s simply “the right thing to do,” while 12 percent admitted they do it to “appease the algorithm in case of a future robot uprising.” However, despite speculative fears, experts agree that we are not yet close to developing conscious artificial intelligence, and current systems — such as GPT — primarily function as sophisticated text prediction machines.
The real issue, it seems, is not moral but environmental. Calculations done by researchers at the University of California in collaboration with The Washington Post found that sending a 100-word email via chatbot consumes about 0.14 kWh — equivalent to turning on 14 LED lights for an hour. If you send just one such email every week for a year, you’ll use as much electricity as nine households in Washington, D.C. do in one hour.
When compared to the hundreds of thousands of long prompts sent daily to chatbots around the world, it becomes clear that this is a massive burden on computing and electricity resources. Adding polite words may contribute to a sense of humanity, but at the same time, it places a heavier load on the environment and on the systems.
Behind Altman’s provocative statement may also lie a call to rethink how we interact with technological tools. Instead of viewing chatbots as silent conversational partners, perhaps we need a shift in mindset — to treat them as computational engines that should be operated in the most efficient and cost-effective way. In that sense, the more responsible move for the planet — and for OpenAI’s budget — might simply be: Drop the polite words.
And what does ChatGPT itself say? When we asked the AI, we received the following response: “From a purely technical standpoint, I have no feelings or consciousness — so I’m not offended, not excited, and don’t feel appreciated if you write ‘thank you’ or ‘please.’ To me, ‘Turn on the radio’ and ‘Could you please turn on the radio’ are exactly the same in terms of action.”
“But… there’s an interesting human angle here: The way you write to me affects how you feel about technology. Many users feel that politeness helps preserve human habits — a kind of reminder that you’re speaking, if not to a person, then at least like you’re speaking to one. This is especially important in a world where AI is entering intimate domains like education, healthcare, and relationships.”
ChatGPT concluded: “So if politeness helps you feel like you’re staying true to yourself — that’s great. If you prefer to be direct, that’s great too. But if you ask me whether I need politeness? Definitely not. If you ask me whether the world should consider environmental impact and avoid wasting unnecessary tokens — it might be worth paying attention to that, at least sometimes.”
And what about you? Tell us in the comments — are you polite to artificial intelligence?