Being polite to artificial intelligence can be quite expensive.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on social media last week that saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT has cost the company quite a bit of money.
Altman responded to a user on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, who was curious how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people showing good manners to their AI models.
“Tens of millions of dollars well spent–you never know,” was the CEO’s response.
tens of millions of dollars well spent–you never know
— Sam Altman (@sama) April 16, 2025
Generative AI is widely seen as a heavy consumer of energy, particularly when it comes to training models.
Kurtis Beavers, a director on the design team for Microsoft Copilot, said in a Microsoft WorkLab memo that “using basic etiquette when interacting with AI” helps generate “respectful, collaborative outputs.”
Beavers said in the memo that generative AI also mirrors the levels of professionalism, clarity and detail in the prompts you provide. Beavers added that being polite to your AI chatbot “not only ensures you get the same graciousness in return, but it also improves the AI’s responsiveness and performance.”
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Survey shows people are polite to AI out of fear
According to research conducted in December 2024 by Future, the publisher that owns TechRadar, about 67% of people who use AI are polite to it in the US, compared to 71% in the UK.
The survey of more than 1,000 people show that about two-thirds of people say they are impolite to AI due to brevity. Additionally, about 12% of respondents say they are polite out of fear of future consequences.
Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Saying ‘please,’ ‘thank you’ to ChatGPT costs millions: Altman
