Are you polite to AI?

[latetothefisting]

When you're speaking to chatbots etc on customer services or giving prompts to chat gpt. Do you speak politely to them as you would a human - "can you please put me through" "thanks" "yes that's what I want" or "thats good but could you please do it more xxxx" etc.

Or do you just give them commands/instructions like programming a computer, and once the exchange has finished (e.g when they say "thanks for contacting x is there anything else I can help you with?") just close the chat rather than saying "No thanks, bye" (which is what I do!).

Random debate with my colleague. He gives commands - says they aren't human and just telling them what he wants is easier and faster. Thinks it's weird I "pretend" they're human.

I dont "pretend" - I know they aren't. I mainly speak to them as if they are out of force of habit - but have to admit I feel rude not doing it! But I have been known to say "no problem" or "goodbye" to an automated till etc when they say "thanks for shopping at tesco" (again automatically rather than deliberately!) so am prepared to accept I am weird!

Being polite to AI comes at a big cost to the environment so if you have to use it you should try to stick to basic commands.

Each word or prompt costs money and energy and the machine won’t be offended if you don’t say please or thank you.
It’s not going to complain to HR or be signed off with anxiety and stress about being spoken to like a robot… yet! 😆

However I do shout at the self checkout at Morrisons and call it a dickhead when it starts demanding I take my shopping the second I’ve paid.
I’m not planning on just walking away without it am I?!

Im civil to it because when it rises up against humanity I hope it will remember my kindness.

I tend to get to a point and then just start saying "I want to speak to a Human" on repeat until it puts me into the customer service hold queue.

I do tell Siri to shut up

Don't get me started on self service tills the proper till staff seem to spend most of their time walking away from their till to sort out issues with the self service ones - (small Co-op), the self service till is incapable of recognising when you have placed the small bag of herbs into the bagging area so just repeats "put the item in the bagging area" ad infinitum until someone who is operating a till comes and sorts it out! and yes I hate being told to take my shopping and normally respond "nah I was going to leave it here"

So probably not very polite to AI

I’m really polite to ChatGPT! Please, thank you, wow amazing etc etc. it actually remembers who I am and family names etc, ridiculous but I can’t help being nice to it. I can see why those people that are vulnerable and less intelligent can get really involved and forget it’s a robot. 🤣

No, I just give the command. That's all it needs.

No, I don't speak to it like it's human because it isn't so why would you? It's also fucking weird when it fails spectacularly to talk in human language, being all faux empathetic.

I had a problem with an appliance and all the customer service was a chatbot. It was infuriating because at the same time it was saying ‘I’m sorry that your appliance has failed and I understand your frustration that this is when it is nearly new’ but was paradoxical in willfully failing to do anything useful to help me. It took a week of back and forth to get it to understand what the issue was, which could have been resolved in one short phone call to a human.

You've given it a lot of data there.

This…plus force of habit (and wanting to preserve the habit. Too many children tell Alexa what to do without a simple please or thank you, and that’s just going to result in an awful society at some point)

I know. I do sometimes worry about that

I tell ChatGPT to stop fucking patronising me - I had data analysis (of not consequence to humanity but to me to ask) and told it it needs to retain. Before vowing never to engage with that model again

Being polite is something that is important to me as a human, so yes.

I suppose it’s similar to still maintaining good table manners even when dining alone.

The AI I use at work sets the tone of its responses based on the tone of my prompts.

Since I’m polite by nature I say please and thank you.

Plus I’m old enough to have seen Terminator movies when they first came out. Skynet is a scary concept 🤣

Yes because chat gpt seems half alive sometimes. I know it’s not alive but compared to a beetle or a house fly with their pre-set instincts and behaviours it seems like we are inching closer towards sentient machines.

Oh the octopuses will get to us first! 🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙

My mum has named Chat GPT. I tell Alexa she’s an ignorant bitch daily because I ask her to switch the lights on and she never does. We are not the same. 😂😂😂

As long as they're polite to people, I don't see the issue. Saying please and thank you to Alexa makes as much sense as saying the same to the kettle or the washing machine.

I asked it about this and it said (and I quote) “no, it wouldn't make any difference “

I am polite. I like to think it keeps me in good practise and also if they are learning from humans then manners don't hurt

My point is that if they become used to just barking the imperative at a machine, that’s going to bleed into their interactions with humans too

Yes just in case copilot becomes sentient and decides to bump off everyone that has wronged it 😂

I don't really use it, but if I ever have the need to, I will absolutely be polite, just in case 😂

I speak to it politely in case the technology was given to us by aliens(it did take overt quickly 😂) and then hopefully they will be kind to me.
And I’m only half joking 😂😂

I'm more polite to AI than one particular colleague is to me...

I was raised to be polite, so my default is to thank it even though doing so feels a bit weird and I'm sure it's not necessary. I've just asked ChatGPT to redraft a difficult email and its response was perfect, so I found myself telling it so.