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Do You Have Basic Manners?

by Mark Singletary
7 replies
There is a story that came out the last couple of days that says OpenAI spends 10s of millions of dollars in extra electricity or processing costs just because people say, "please" and "thank you."

OpenAI said it was worth it and someone from the CoPilot team said that treating bots with professionalism is important.

How do you talk to it?

Mark
#basic #manners
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  • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
    I guess I'm rude, because I do not say please or thank you. However, Gemini (Bard) has a thumbs-up and thumbs-down button after a question is asked. Once you give it a response, Gemini says, "Thank you for the feedback." Considering that helps AI give better responses to the questions or prompts you feed to it. It's a computer program not a human being with emotional feelings.

    Just checking Chat GPT, I asked if it minds if you say please or thank you. Here is the response - "Not at all--I actually like it! It makes the conversation feel more natural and respectful, kind of like we're just chatting over coffee. " There was more to the answer. However, Chat GPT has thumbs-up and thumbs-down ratings also.
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  • Profile picture of the author Monetize
    Originally Posted by Mark Singletary View Post

    There is a story that came out the last couple of days that says OpenAI spends 10s of millions of dollars in extra electricity or processing costs just because people say, "please" and "thank you."

    OpenAI said it was worth it and someone from the CoPilot team said that treating bots with professionalism is important.

    How do you talk to it?

    Mark

    I ALWAYS say please and thank you to ChatGPT and all the
    other A.I. tools that communicate.

    I also click on the thumbs up icon on most of their outputs, if
    I'm not engaged in other things at once.

    If it is taking up that much electricity for the thing to respond
    to thanks or praise then the engineers should program it to
    say "You're Welcome" and leave it at that.

    It's not my fault that it writes a dissertation whenever I thank it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Abdullahcpa
    I say 'please' and 'thank you' out of habit, it just feels natural to me, even if it's a bot. But yeah, if the AI's using up that much extra energy, maybe they should just give a quick 'You're welcome' and call it good. No need for a full-on response just because I'm polite.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mark Singletary
      Originally Posted by Abdullahcpa View Post

      I say 'please' and 'thank you' out of habit, it just feels natural to me, even if it's a bot.
      Yes, when I ask someone to help me I always try to be polite, say please and thank you, apologize when I'm wrong, etc. It's just part of my personality and I guess the way I was raised.

      So, when I saw this article, I was astonished that processing those two simple words costs so much money and that the companies didn't mind.

      Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author spartan14
    Well many times i catch myself sayjng : please ,thanks ,you are great to chatgpt
    In my mind i say to myself : hey its no point in beying amable with a robot
    But this its my personality
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  • Profile picture of the author emptyuser1234
    There's actually a practical reason to be polite to chatbots as well - it has been studied to produce better answers!

    https://www.axios.com/2024/02/26/cha...eness-research

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...n%20upbringing.)

    It looks like there are limits to it - being polite gets better results, but flattering excessively makes it do worse...

    Sorta like us humans, I guess!
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  • Profile picture of the author Princess Balestra
    *sigh*

    As a natchrl Sagittarian I endeavor always to be pearlite.

    But yuccaint skip the trooth, evah.

    Which is why the only handy & accesserbyool moron in my apartment is Moi.
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