Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, announced on social media platform X that the use of polite expressions like "please" and "thank you" costs the company tens of millions of dollars. This information is reported by Futurism.

While communicating politely with chatbots may seem trivial, some experts believe it holds significance. For instance, Microsoft designer Curtis Beavers noted that proper etiquette "helps generate more useful outcomes".

A survey conducted at the end of 2024 revealed that 67% of respondents in the U.S. reported being polite when interacting with chatbots. Among them, 55% indicated they do so "because it's the right thing to do", while 12% claimed it was to prevent any potential uprising of AI algorithms.

Even though many experts assert that we are far from an AI revolution, user politeness could have tangible ecological implications today.

In a study by the Washington Post in collaboration with researchers from the University of California, the energy consequences of composing a 100-word email were examined. They found that generating one email requires 0.14 kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 14 LED bulbs for an hour. Creating one email weekly over a year would already consume 7.5 kWh.

Data centers that power these chatbots consume around 2% of the world's energy, and this figure is only expected to rise.