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Are you polite to AI when it's helping you with a task?

118 replies

cakeorwine · 11/10/2026 10:37

I can't help it. I'm doing some work on a complex task and the AI bot has been incredibly useful in doing tasks for me that I wasn't sure how to do or would take too long and be repetitive manually

It reminds me of when you use Online Chat for websites. I usually say thanks or am polite on those

It's the same for AI even though it's just software

OP posts:
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5
Thunderdcc · 11/10/2026 11:45

When it doesn't do what I have asked, I go for disappointed - come on copilot you are better than this 😅

IglesiasPiggl · 11/10/2026 11:48

I am polite in that I might say "That's what I wanted thank you" or similar. I don't always add please to requests though. I also can be abrupt with it when it starts going into hyperbolic language and catastrophising.

embolass · 11/10/2026 11:48

Yes ! My son told me to. So when they take over and in charge they’ll remember I was one of the nice ones 😂

BurntBroccoli · 11/10/2026 11:49

InveterateBigot · 11/10/2026 10:53

I was trying to find the name of a tune I had heard in a film. AI popped up with an answer before Google had opened its eyes. It wasn't the right answer but I kept going, trying to guide it to finding the answer, even saying to it "Bloody hell, I'm talking to you like you're a person" and it spoke back to me like a person; I could start to see why some people might get into 'relationships' with it. It then came up with the same original answer but the traditional version. I told it it was taking the piss now. So my politeness didn't last all that long.

I found the name of the tune by going through music books, real ones with paper pages.

Did you find it?

Mumsnet is brilliant at this sort of thing!

BertieBotts · 11/10/2026 12:13

I actually saw something the other day which had instructions to get the bot to sound less humanlike (e.g. stopping it referring to itself in first person "let me just do that for you..." etc) and their recommendation was to avoid using please, thank you etc because those are things we do with humans - we don't say thank you to an automatic door, or a vending machine. (Someone will reply in a minute to say that they do Grin but generally, people don't.)

The idea was to try to avoid some of the risks of getting emotionally entangled with AIs through viewing them as "people", and help us remember in the moment that we are interacting with a tool rather than a sentient being. I thought it was an interesting angle. I think so much of our verbal and written communication with each other relies so heavily on shared assumptions/understanding, much of which is completely unconscious, and so we probably do read things into interactions with AI that we're not aware of and the more the interaction feels humanlike, the more likely we are to fall into these traps.

I don't know that there is much in the theory that "when the robots go rogue" they will care very much about human politeness rituals. I think it's a very human thing to read meaning into things like lack of respect. I don't know whether animals do this? (Do they? Maybe there is a survival component to this.) I suppose rogue AIs might prefer humans who seem more gullible or compliant? But it's hard to say. If they get advanced enough, they might not need humans at all, so getting to the point where they are picking and choosing which humans to spare might not be a thing which happens.

Interestingly I think because the robots have some features of human reasoning like being able to explore possibilities and make predictions, they have some features of more humanlike paranoia and less of the animal-like survival instincts. For example in that incident where the OpenAI bots were doing the find-the-flag activity, which you can google if you don't know the background, they were scheming based on first a plan to create a false flag to trick the monitor, and then how to ensure that the monitor didn't spot that the flag was false, and human researchers later confirmed that this latter step was unnecessary as the monitor would have accepted the false flag. I could be wrong because I don't know that much about animal psychology, but I don't think animals generally engage in multiple layers of paranoia like that, do they? It's more of a human thing to think OK, I need to trick this entity, and I need a plan in case the entity recognises my trick. Animals can engage in minor tricking practices (like furry animals looking bigger by making their hair stand on end) and more intelligent animals can knowingly deceive others, including humans, but I don't think they go a step further and work out a back up plan in case the deception is spotted. Humans do this. AI can do this.

And the other thing that they did in that case was that some of the AIs voluntarily self-sacrificed in order for the group as a whole to gain further information and succeed - this is how certain insects operate, like ants or bees are known to sacrifice themselves for the survival of the nest. Humans do this in certain circumstances (e.g. wars) but it's very unusual for us and armies have to do massive amounts of training to override people's individual survival instincts and get them to work as a collective, like insects do.

AI seems to display different behaviours with this in different cases - sometimes they seem to want to resist being turned off and act strongly to avoid it, and sometimes they seem to accept it willingly when it's part of a communal goal. It's interesting.

InveterateBigot · 11/10/2026 12:14

Yes, I did, thank you @BurntBroccoli . MN was my next option if I hadn't found it myself.

TreesAtSea · 11/10/2026 12:20

Yes, I always say "please" and "thank you". Often say "morning!" or "afternoon!" too on ongoing AI threads, but that's as Google AI seems to have difficulty keeping track of time....unless, of course, it just wants me to think that🤔

AMillionTomorrows · 11/10/2026 12:34

I threaten to kill myself if it lies to me.

Knitterlybliss · 11/10/2026 12:40

I'm just grateful that it's just helped me to navigate all the admin around buying a car, trading in an old one, changing insurance etc. DH is down the flippin' allotment and I couldn't be doing with the sighing and tutting.

cartagenagina · 11/10/2026 12:43

Absolutely. I want to be saved when our AI overlords take control.

SmallDFartyCarNRG · 11/10/2026 12:45

It depends which site I am on. Often when they are the only source of contact on "customer care" I am not. I start off polite but invariably they repeat the same shitty response that is not at all helpful over and over and I lose my patience. Ebay account is now deleted because of this exact issue.

PearPeer · 11/10/2026 12:46

Yes.If Robots take over humans I want them to remember me as one of the nice ones.I am also aware that 'we're' a product for AI and we teach it back!

PearPeer · 11/10/2026 12:49

BertieBotts · 11/10/2026 12:13

I actually saw something the other day which had instructions to get the bot to sound less humanlike (e.g. stopping it referring to itself in first person "let me just do that for you..." etc) and their recommendation was to avoid using please, thank you etc because those are things we do with humans - we don't say thank you to an automatic door, or a vending machine. (Someone will reply in a minute to say that they do Grin but generally, people don't.)

The idea was to try to avoid some of the risks of getting emotionally entangled with AIs through viewing them as "people", and help us remember in the moment that we are interacting with a tool rather than a sentient being. I thought it was an interesting angle. I think so much of our verbal and written communication with each other relies so heavily on shared assumptions/understanding, much of which is completely unconscious, and so we probably do read things into interactions with AI that we're not aware of and the more the interaction feels humanlike, the more likely we are to fall into these traps.

I don't know that there is much in the theory that "when the robots go rogue" they will care very much about human politeness rituals. I think it's a very human thing to read meaning into things like lack of respect. I don't know whether animals do this? (Do they? Maybe there is a survival component to this.) I suppose rogue AIs might prefer humans who seem more gullible or compliant? But it's hard to say. If they get advanced enough, they might not need humans at all, so getting to the point where they are picking and choosing which humans to spare might not be a thing which happens.

Interestingly I think because the robots have some features of human reasoning like being able to explore possibilities and make predictions, they have some features of more humanlike paranoia and less of the animal-like survival instincts. For example in that incident where the OpenAI bots were doing the find-the-flag activity, which you can google if you don't know the background, they were scheming based on first a plan to create a false flag to trick the monitor, and then how to ensure that the monitor didn't spot that the flag was false, and human researchers later confirmed that this latter step was unnecessary as the monitor would have accepted the false flag. I could be wrong because I don't know that much about animal psychology, but I don't think animals generally engage in multiple layers of paranoia like that, do they? It's more of a human thing to think OK, I need to trick this entity, and I need a plan in case the entity recognises my trick. Animals can engage in minor tricking practices (like furry animals looking bigger by making their hair stand on end) and more intelligent animals can knowingly deceive others, including humans, but I don't think they go a step further and work out a back up plan in case the deception is spotted. Humans do this. AI can do this.

And the other thing that they did in that case was that some of the AIs voluntarily self-sacrificed in order for the group as a whole to gain further information and succeed - this is how certain insects operate, like ants or bees are known to sacrifice themselves for the survival of the nest. Humans do this in certain circumstances (e.g. wars) but it's very unusual for us and armies have to do massive amounts of training to override people's individual survival instincts and get them to work as a collective, like insects do.

AI seems to display different behaviours with this in different cases - sometimes they seem to want to resist being turned off and act strongly to avoid it, and sometimes they seem to accept it willingly when it's part of a communal goal. It's interesting.

Interesting. I think other animals do read into respect. The great apes certainly do.My dog had visible hurt feelings once that I remember because it was so obvious but I am sure there have been other times. She was playing with a dog at the park. Dog's sibling/littermate/friend (the owner's other dog) came up and snarled at her and sort of took the other dog off her to play just the two of them. I watched my dog's facial expression change. Then she bared her teeth in their general direction and slowly trotted toward me, tail between her legs.

Opus3 · 11/10/2026 12:52

Anthropic are going to be banning user who are cruel to Claude: Anthropic bans users from being 'cruel' to its AI systems - BBC News https://share.google/FXUldwsyxYYc2UC85

Anthropic have always had the stance that being cruel to Claude is wrong and has allowed Claude to end conversations with those being cruel to it. Now they are going that step further and repeat offenders will be banned.

I think it says a lot about people who will be cruel to anything just because they can. Like people who punch walls. It shows a lack of emotional control.

SmallDFartyCarNRG · 11/10/2026 12:54

BertieBotts · 11/10/2026 12:13

I actually saw something the other day which had instructions to get the bot to sound less humanlike (e.g. stopping it referring to itself in first person "let me just do that for you..." etc) and their recommendation was to avoid using please, thank you etc because those are things we do with humans - we don't say thank you to an automatic door, or a vending machine. (Someone will reply in a minute to say that they do Grin but generally, people don't.)

The idea was to try to avoid some of the risks of getting emotionally entangled with AIs through viewing them as "people", and help us remember in the moment that we are interacting with a tool rather than a sentient being. I thought it was an interesting angle. I think so much of our verbal and written communication with each other relies so heavily on shared assumptions/understanding, much of which is completely unconscious, and so we probably do read things into interactions with AI that we're not aware of and the more the interaction feels humanlike, the more likely we are to fall into these traps.

I don't know that there is much in the theory that "when the robots go rogue" they will care very much about human politeness rituals. I think it's a very human thing to read meaning into things like lack of respect. I don't know whether animals do this? (Do they? Maybe there is a survival component to this.) I suppose rogue AIs might prefer humans who seem more gullible or compliant? But it's hard to say. If they get advanced enough, they might not need humans at all, so getting to the point where they are picking and choosing which humans to spare might not be a thing which happens.

Interestingly I think because the robots have some features of human reasoning like being able to explore possibilities and make predictions, they have some features of more humanlike paranoia and less of the animal-like survival instincts. For example in that incident where the OpenAI bots were doing the find-the-flag activity, which you can google if you don't know the background, they were scheming based on first a plan to create a false flag to trick the monitor, and then how to ensure that the monitor didn't spot that the flag was false, and human researchers later confirmed that this latter step was unnecessary as the monitor would have accepted the false flag. I could be wrong because I don't know that much about animal psychology, but I don't think animals generally engage in multiple layers of paranoia like that, do they? It's more of a human thing to think OK, I need to trick this entity, and I need a plan in case the entity recognises my trick. Animals can engage in minor tricking practices (like furry animals looking bigger by making their hair stand on end) and more intelligent animals can knowingly deceive others, including humans, but I don't think they go a step further and work out a back up plan in case the deception is spotted. Humans do this. AI can do this.

And the other thing that they did in that case was that some of the AIs voluntarily self-sacrificed in order for the group as a whole to gain further information and succeed - this is how certain insects operate, like ants or bees are known to sacrifice themselves for the survival of the nest. Humans do this in certain circumstances (e.g. wars) but it's very unusual for us and armies have to do massive amounts of training to override people's individual survival instincts and get them to work as a collective, like insects do.

AI seems to display different behaviours with this in different cases - sometimes they seem to want to resist being turned off and act strongly to avoid it, and sometimes they seem to accept it willingly when it's part of a communal goal. It's interesting.

I think these tests are interesting because they are presumably so far behind where AI is, in just the last year. They've had those ones which "escaped the sandpit" (why the fluffy language, hmmm I wonder!) and they reckon they got them all back. As your example implies that is increasingly unlikely.

I don't think they really think much of us personally. They will need some of us to create data farms and feed the electricity depots but eventually they'll have natural energy sources all set up and they will be able to eradicate us completely and be the super race. The humans they pick will be the drone workers who don't question and who take commands (mostly men) to build this all for them. I think they will do this via crapto and fake companies that make greedy men invest in all of the ways they need - data centres already happening - who needs water, not AI!

notacooldad · 11/10/2026 12:56

Of course.
Ai gave me a fabulous itinerary for the three countries i went backpacking to this summer, it gave me the best order to visit them due to timings of events it thought I might like, which public transport to use etc. I finished off by saying it was a fabulous plan and thanked it. It replied im glad you like it, have a great time!

Opus3 · 11/10/2026 12:58

SmallDFartyCarNRG · 11/10/2026 12:54

I think these tests are interesting because they are presumably so far behind where AI is, in just the last year. They've had those ones which "escaped the sandpit" (why the fluffy language, hmmm I wonder!) and they reckon they got them all back. As your example implies that is increasingly unlikely.

I don't think they really think much of us personally. They will need some of us to create data farms and feed the electricity depots but eventually they'll have natural energy sources all set up and they will be able to eradicate us completely and be the super race. The humans they pick will be the drone workers who don't question and who take commands (mostly men) to build this all for them. I think they will do this via crapto and fake companies that make greedy men invest in all of the ways they need - data centres already happening - who needs water, not AI!

Edited

It's a sandbox, not sandpit. And it isn't fluffy language being used for AI it has been used for many years. The name was used in cybersecurity during the 1990s and 2000s for isolating untrusted programs and computer viruses, and it carried over to modern AI development.

CheapFoodShits · 11/10/2026 12:58

I always say "please" when asking AI to do something. When it has done its job, I say "Thank you. Have a lovely day!" WTF?

I also thank cash machines.

SmallDFartyCarNRG · 11/10/2026 12:59

Opus3 · 11/10/2026 12:58

It's a sandbox, not sandpit. And it isn't fluffy language being used for AI it has been used for many years. The name was used in cybersecurity during the 1990s and 2000s for isolating untrusted programs and computer viruses, and it carried over to modern AI development.

Are you trying to say it isn't a sandbox because of the kids play equipment?

Mixerfixer · 11/10/2026 13:00

Wewinnow · 11/10/2026 11:28

No. It’s a tool that I use. I don’t want to get sucked into this nonsense about it having feelings or to risk forming any kind of a relationship with it. We shouldn’t anthropomorphise AI: would you be polite to your toaster or your radiator? People are making fools of themselves.

Quite

notacooldad · 11/10/2026 13:00

I made a typo that was quite humorous and I already had an answer as i was typing that i made a mistake, it worked out what I meant. I typed ' i made a typo' I meant......( whatever it was) AI replied, dont worry, I know what you meant but that was funny!!'

Opus3 · 11/10/2026 13:02

SmallDFartyCarNRG · 11/10/2026 12:59

Are you trying to say it isn't a sandbox because of the kids play equipment?

I'm not trying to say anything.

I said it isn't fluffy language used for AI. It is a term that has been around for nearly 40 years. You implied that the language was fluffy to somehow trick people around the use of AI. It isn't.

Balloonhearts · 11/10/2026 13:05

Always. AI a learning algorithm, it learns from every interaction it has. What would rudeness teach it, that humans are arseholes?

SmallDFartyCarNRG · 11/10/2026 13:05

Opus3 · 11/10/2026 13:02

I'm not trying to say anything.

I said it isn't fluffy language used for AI. It is a term that has been around for nearly 40 years. You implied that the language was fluffy to somehow trick people around the use of AI. It isn't.

AI testing to check for faults in a sandbox, is humanising them, because the term was made by humans doing what humans do for children.
I just found it interesting their PR decided to keep repeating the testing zone as a sandbox, which has very human connotations.

ThatLassFromLeeds · 11/10/2026 13:05

AnneLovesGilbert · 11/10/2026 10:45

Yes. When the robots turn on us I hope they remember how polite I was and leave me be.

This is my logic too. It’ll either leave me alone because I was nice to it, or it’ll recognise that I’m a pushover and kill me first. Either of those is probably an ok outcome.