For some, saying ‘please’ to an AI reflects a deliberate ethical stance. Photo: Shutterstock
In our daily interactions, saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ is second nature—a reflection of societal norms and personal courtesy.
But when engaging with artificial intelligence (AI) systems like ChatGPT, does this politeness serve any purpose, or does it simply create unnecessary waste?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently revealed that including polite phrases when prompting AI systems costs the company tens of millions of dollars in additional electricity expenses.
Every word we type is processed as part of a “token” — a unit of data that the AI system must analyse and respond to.
The more tokens used, the more computing power and energy are required.
Individually, the impact of a few extra words is trivial.
But when scaled across millions of users each day, these additions significantly increase the workload on servers, resulting in higher energy consumption, greater carbon emissions, and substantial operational costs.
Why politeness is technically unnecessary
Unlike humans, AI systems are not sentient — they do not possess consciousness, emotions, or self-awareness.
So, they do not feel respected or disrespected.
A clear, specific prompt or instruction is sufficient for optimal performance.
Whether users say ‘please’ or not, the system processes it in the same mechanical way, and remains indifferent to the tone of our prompts.
In fact, overly verbose prompts may slow processing and introduce inefficiencies.
From a technical perspective, brevity is beneficial.
It reduces the computational load and improves the system’s responsiveness and efficiency.
The ethical and social case for politeness
Despite being unnecessary for functionality, many users still choose to be polite when interacting with AI.
For some, it is a habit; for others, it reflects a deliberate ethical stance — modelling civility and respect in all interactions, human or otherwise.
In education, maintaining politeness when using AI can help reinforce important social norms for students.
In professional environments, encouraging courtesy — even towards machines — can contribute to preserving a workplace culture that values respect and professionalism.
There is also a psychological element.
Humans naturally anthropomorphise technology, attributing human-like qualities to machines that simulate conversation.
Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to an AI often feels natural, even if we understand it is not logically necessary.
Research suggests that while impolite prompts can lead to shorter and less positive responses from AI models like ChatGPT, overly polite language does not necessarily produce better outcomes.
This behaviour may reflect ChatGPT’s tendency to mirror human communication patterns, responding differently depending on the tone and style of input it receives.
There is also a longer-term consideration.
Language used when interacting with AI systems can become part of future training data.
If large volumes of polite, courteous language are fed into future model development, it could subtly influence how AI systems communicate in return.
While this might encourage more human-like politeness in AI responses, it also raises questions about whether our casual habits today could shape machine behaviour tomorrow in unintended ways.
Environmental and economic costs of digital manners
The environmental impact of our digital habits is often overlooked.
Increased computational loads, however minor individually, collectively drive up electricity consumption in the data centres that support AI models.
Data centres already account for a growing share of global energy demand, and AI use is pushing that demand higher.
Even seemingly trivial behaviours, when repeated billions of times, can contribute significantly to overall energy use and associated carbon emissions.
Financially, the additional strain on infrastructure leads to higher operational costs — costs that companies must manage and which could eventually affect the pricing and accessibility of AI services.
Should we change the way we interact?
These realities leave users — and society — with an interesting dilemma.
Should we abandon politeness in digital interactions with AI to prioritise efficiency and sustainability?
Or should we preserve our courteous habits as a way of maintaining broader social values, even in machine-mediated communication?
There may be a middle ground.
In contexts where modelling respectful communication is important — such as education or public-facing communication — polite prompting may be justified.
In more routine or repetitive personal use, however, concise, efficient prompting may better align with broader environmental and economic responsibilities.
Awareness is key.
Recognising the real-world consequences of our digital behaviours enables users to make more thoughtful decisions about when courtesy adds value and when it does not.
Thinking about the ‘why’ behind our words
As AI tools become part of daily life, it is worth thinking carefully about not just what we say to machines but also why we say it.
Politeness is a valuable part of human society — but when directed towards non-sentient systems, it comes at hidden computational, financial, and environmental costs.
Awareness, rather than automatic habit, may help us strike the right balance between courtesy and responsibility in the age of AI.
By Ritesh Chugh, Associate Professor of Information and Communication Technologies at CQUniversity Australia. This article was first published in ACS Information Age