Unlocking Efficiency: Why Saying ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’ to ChatGPT is Costing Millions, According to Sam Altman

If chivalry isn’t dead, it’s definitely on life support. Recently, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, shared that polite language like “please” and “thank you” is costing his company a lot of money. On social media, someone joked about how much OpenAI spends on electricity just from users being courteous to their AI models. Altman responded that it’s “tens of millions of dollars well spent,” suggesting there’s value in politeness—even with machines.

But why does courtesy matter when interacting with chatbots? According to Microsoft’s design manager, Kurtis Beavers, using polite language can actually improve responses from AI. He believes that respectful interaction sets a positive tone for the replies. This idea makes sense when you think about it: AI systems often mimic the style and tone of the prompts they receive. If you’re polite, they’re likely to be polite back.

A recent survey showed that 67% of Americans feel they should be nice to their chatbots. Many do it simply because it feels right. Some even joke about it as a way to perhaps protect themselves from a future where AI might run amok.

However, there are real-world implications. A study conducted by the University of California revealed that generating just a 100-word email using AI can use 0.14 kilowatt-hours of electricity. To put that into perspective, if you sent one AI-generated email every week, you’d consume enough energy to power nine homes for an hour in Washington D.C. The impact of frequent interactions with AI adds up quickly, particularly as users send countless prompts to AI systems daily.

Currently, data centers that run AI models consume around 2% of the world’s energy, and that number is expected to rise. With the growing popularity of AI, our digital habits have significant environmental consequences. Every “please” and “thank you” has a hidden cost.

Experts warn that as AI technology becomes more integrated into our lives, we need to consider the energy and environmental impact of our digital behavior. While expressing politeness might be a nice gesture, it could be more beneficial to tackle our tasks ourselves when possible. Your planet—and your brain—might thank you for it.

For more insights on the environmental effects of AI, you can check out this report by the Washington Post.

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