Saying 'Thank You' to chatbots costs millions of dollars

[ergophobe]

Someone posted on X last week: "I wonder how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying 'please' and 'thank you' to their models."

The next day, Mr. Altman responded: "Tens of millions of dollars well spent — you never know."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/technology/chatgpt-alexa-please-thank-you.html

Why well spent? Because there is research showing that how people interact with chatbots and Alexa carries over into how they interact with people. Among other reasons