Ever found yourself saying “please” or “thank you” to ChatGPT? You’re not alone—and it’s costing OpenAI a pretty penny. CEO Sam Altman recently acknowledged on X that these polite interactions add up to “tens of millions of dollars” in electricity bills. His take? “Well spent—you never know.” Cue the collective sigh of relief from those worried about AI overlords. 😉
A TechRadar survey found 70% of users are polite to AI, with 12% doing so just in case of a robot uprising. But here’s the kicker: every “please” or “thank you” requires energy—lots of it—thanks to the massive servers powering ChatGPT.
Is politeness worth the environmental cost? Maybe. TechRadar’s Becca Caddy discovered that polite prompts often yield better, less biased responses. So while your manners might be draining the grid, they could also be sharpening AI’s reliability. Talk about a double-edged sword.
Bottom line: ChatGPT isn’t judging your etiquette (yet). But if you’re worried about the planet, maybe skip the niceties—or just ask smarter questions.
