Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, shared on social media platform X that processing various forms of politeness like "please" and "thank you" costs the company tens of millions of dollars.
While polite communication may seem trivial, some experts find it beneficial. Microsoft design manager Curtis Beavers stated that proper etiquette "helps generate more useful outcomes."
A survey conducted at the end of 2024 found that 67% of respondents in the U.S. reported being polite when interacting with chatbots. Of this group, 55% said they do so "because it’s the right thing to do," while 12% do it to calm the algorithm in case of an AI uprising.
Despite many specialists assuring that a true AI revolution is still far off, user politeness can create real ecological impacts even today.
In a study by the Washington Post, conducted in collaboration with researchers from the University of California, the energy costs of generating a 100-word email were examined. They found that creating one email requires 0.14 kilowatt-hours of power, enough to power 14 LED bulbs for an hour. Generating one email per 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.