The Real Cost of Being Polite to AI: Sam Altman Reveals the Price

The Hidden Energy Cost of Politeness to AI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently disclosed that using polite phrases like "please" and "thank you" when interacting with ChatGPT adds up to tens of millions of dollars in extra computing expenses. Each word sent to AI models requires additional processing power, and while polite words may seem trivial, their cumulative effect across billions of conversations significantly increases electricity consumption and server usage.

AI's Massive Energy and Water Footprint

AI models operate on enormous data centers that account for about 2% of the world's electricity consumption—a figure expected to grow. The energy usage of AI systems could soon rival that of industrialized nations like Japan. A Washington Post investigation with University of California researchers found that generating a 100-word email using AI consumes 0.14 kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 14 LED lights for an hour.

Water consumption for cooling servers is also substantial. UC Riverside researchers reported that producing 100 words with GPT-4 uses up to three bottles of water for cooling. Even a short response like "You are welcome" consumes approximately 1.5 ounces of water.

Why People Are Polite to Machines

Surveys show that most users genuinely try to be polite to AI chatbots. A 2023 survey found that 67% of U.S. respondents were courteous to their chatbots, with 55% doing so because they believed it was the right thing to do. Interestingly, 12% admitted to being polite to "appease the algorithm" in case of an AI uprising.

Politeness Improves AI Responses

Research from Waseda University indicates that polite prompts can lead to higher quality responses from large language models (LLMs). Since LLMs are trained on human language, they reflect human desires for respect to some extent.

The Human Impact of AI Etiquette

Some experts highlight that maintaining politeness to AI influences our own social behavior. Using rude or disrespectful language with AI may normalize such behavior in human interactions. This concern has been observed with voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, where children became less respectful when accustomed to commanding them harshly. Google introduced the "Pretty Please" feature in 2018 to encourage politeness among children.

Balancing Costs and Benefits

Whether politeness towards AI is motivated by ethical considerations, improving AI performance, or humor about AI takeovers, users should be mindful that every interaction has an environmental cost. As AI continues to integrate into daily life, understanding and managing these costs is increasingly important.