The Cost of Polite Interactions with Chatbots

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, announced on social media platform X that the processing of polite requests like "please" and "thank you" costs the company "tens of millions of dollars [USD]". This was reported by Futurism.

While communicating politely with chatbots may seem trivial, some AI architects find it beneficial. For instance, Curtis Beavers, a design manager at Microsoft, claims that proper etiquette "helps generate more useful outcomes".

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

Although many experts assure that we are far from an AI revolution, user politeness may already be creating tangible ecological impacts.

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

Data centers that support these chatbots already account for about 2% of global energy consumption, and this figure is only expected to grow.