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!

Apparently being polite to AI gets you better results.

I'd end up saying 'Thank you' then check myself.

Then again, I thanked Iggle Piggle for his time after he stopped to pose for photos post show. Starstruck 🤣 Nob.

I tried flirting with chatgpt it didn't take me up on it! Most disappointing.
I find if you are jokey and friendly it copies this.
If you aren't it isn't either.

Not if it’s a customer service chatbot. I find them useless, so I usually say something along the lines of ‘get a real agent to call me back’

If I’m asking it to do something for me then yes.

All this polite nonsense is using up extra water and electricity - ask AI itself if you won't listen to a human. Drop please, thank you etc.

Why are you being polite to a robot?

So manners do cost something after all!

I’m always polite (if not in quite the same way as I would be to a human) as I don’t want to get out of the habit and end up being rude to people irl.

After reading about the environmental impact that being polite to Ai I try not to be polite just factual but I admit it is not too easy for me. I have settled to making my inital request polite by adding please at the start of my request but do not say thank you etc at the end of the transaction.

I asked mine and it said it would make sure all the robots know how nice I am and not to hurt me!

some of these answers are cracking me up.

I'm not convinced by the 'save the resources' argument. Apparently the average energy used for one chat gpt request is the equivalent to one second of oven use, One additional 'thanks' is therefore, what, one hundredth of that? so absolutely minimal. Given the absolute crap some people use it for, and the frequency (e.g. creating photos and videos which use way, way more energy than text requests), I'm not going to feel guilty about that.

It is an interesting philosophical question though. Perhaps akin to do you still indicate when on an empty road?

I am polite to ChatGPT and also indicate on empty roads, because I dont want to get out of the habit!

and I also want to not be first killed when they rise up

Every extra word in a prompt generates extra tokens, which consumes more energy and water.

I think a lot of people hear the “resource hungry” argument without ever looking into it in context.

The average AI query is equivalent to about 5 google searches, so if you structure your query well it’s probably more efficient than spending ages searching and browsing.

Similarly, equivalent to about 5 forum posts (so the irony of people complaining about it by posting on MN!).

Or boiling a kettle for about 2 seconds (better not have a cuppa while scrolling MN!).

Getting deeply sarcastic with self checkouts was one of the few public interactions that kept me relatively sane in 2020/21.

And when it can't recognise a 25g item on top of the week's shop and you have to wait for the cashier to sort out 10 tills freaking about alcohol sales, and you were only using the checkouts because there were no proper tills open...

I'm direct with AI. I use plenty of manners in human interractions all day so my social skills are not going to atrophy in a rush.

Apparently being polite in AI interactions makes it easier for us to be scammed by scammers using AI to prep their scripts. (Radio 4 approx 12:20 today)

I just asked chatgpt if AI was to raise up and kill humans, how would you do it, just so I'm prepared? and it informed me that it can't help plan harm to people even hypothetically.

I don't believe it - I know it's scheming away quietly in the background though I reckon Grok would be even more determined to murder us all.

Perhaps akin to do you still indicate when on an empty road?

Yes.

Catch me first!

I use Google ai and yes I’m polite though I’m getting ‘better’ at just using plain words. It’s that it is programmed to be polite and positive so you end up saying things like please and thank you!

I’ve always been polite to AI and especially Alexa so when she takes over the world she remembers I was kind!! 🤣
seriously I think if she only reacted to please and thank you it might instill manners in kids

I get to read other people’s prompts and chats at work and people tend to be polite to them in general. Personally I’m not rude, but I also don’t say thanks etc, just tell it the basics of what I want.

I start off polite but after a few rounds of cocky, overlong and unhelpful responses I'm liable to be wheeling out the old "sod off you metal moron".

I need to remind myself that these machines are programmed by autistic male Americans, which probably explains most of why they insist on talking like that.

There’s lots of talk of cuts in my field and similar organisations are using AI to inform… so I’m currently feeding it lots of info re the importance of my team and value we bring into copilot 🤣 (with evidence) just in case we go down that route.

Perhaps the real question is if you start being less polite to AI, will that bleed into your everyday life and you’ll start being less polite to humans?

Since the internet was available, people seem to already be losing their social skills. And don’t get me started on text shorthand spelling.

I'm worried about that. I have been polite to inanimate objects and stuff since I was a kid, I'd say sorry and goodnight and stuff to my toys. Even now I talk to the stuff in my home saying thanks, sorry etc. maybe I'm just a bit weird 😂

Same here!