Tell Me I’m Wrong (But Be Nice About It)

Does a bot need politeness?

Chatter about chatbot manners has become a thing in recent weeks. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently defended the practice of saying "please" and "thank you" to AI bots like ChatGPT, even though it reportedly uses more electricity, calling it "tens of millions of dollars well spent." One Microsoft manager said that fostering politeness means that machines will reflect that back, which "helps generate respectful, collaborative outputs."

But not everyone’s convinced. The Hustle points out that chatbots have gotten so polite they're basically useless at giving honest feedback. Blogger Sean Goedecke has even suggested a workaround: when you want a chatbot to be honest, tell it that you're asking for a critique of someone else’s work, not your own. Apparently bots are way more willing to roast a stranger than they are to hurt your feelings.

In the end, all this politeness may pay off in other ways. If the robot overlords are going to take over as the Silicon Valley bros worry they will, then we will be glad we put in the effort to be nice. As Altman said, “You never know.”