The Impact of Polite Communication on AI Energy Consumption
OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman shared on social media platform X that responding to various "please" and "thank you" costs the company "tens of millions of dollars [USD]". This information was reported by Futurism.
While polite communication with chatbots may seem pointless, some AI architects find it beneficial. For instance, Microsoft design manager Curtis Beavers states that proper etiquette "helps generate more useful outcomes".
A survey conducted at the end of 2024 showed that 67% of respondents in the US reported being polite when interacting with chatbots. Of this group, 55% said they do it "because it's the right thing to do," and 12% do it to calm the algorithm in case of an AI uprising.
Although many experts assure that an AI revolution is far off, user politeness may already be creating real environmental consequences.
In a study by the Washington Post, conducted in collaboration with researchers from the University of California, the consequences of creating a 100-word email were explored. They found that generating one email requires 0.14 kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 14 LED bulbs for an hour. Creating one email per week for a year already consumes 7.5 kWh.
Data centers used to power these chatbots currently consume about 2% of the world's energy supply, and this figure is only expected to grow.