Should You Be Polite to Machines
bend over backwards: to try extremely hard to make someone happy
People are bending over backwards to be polite to AI chatbots. They say “please” and “thank you” to AI, but this kindness isn’t free—it costs money.
The AI boom requires a lot of energy. Every extra word you say to AI requires more electricity to process, and it isn’t cheap. Most of it comes from fossil fuels, so there’s an environmental cost to politeness too.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said that they have spent “tens of millions of dollars” to process polite words like please and thank you. Still, he says it’s money “well spent.”
Machines don’t care how we talk to them, and they don’t need us to be polite to work well. But even though AI doesn’t have feelings, some say that how we talk with chatbots is important. One expert said we build habits from the way we talk to machines, and how we talk to them can affect how we talk to real people.
Sample sentences
The hotel staff bent over backwards to fix the mistake in our booking.
They gave us a free room upgrade.
He bends over backwards for his customers because he wants them to return.
That’s why his store is always full.
I don’t mind helping, but I’m not going to bend over backwards if no one appreciates it.
Read More:
Saying ‘Thank You’ to ChatGPT Is Costly. But Maybe It’s Worth the Price.