The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman has shared the eerie reality of what actually happens when you search with artificial intelligence.
Altman has talked about whether it is important to be polite to your AI chatbot and what effects it can have.
And while a lot of us have been cautious to mind our Ps and Qs around ChatGPT for fear AI might take over the world one day, it turns out that it is actually costing the tech giant millions of dollars.
Altman took to X, formerly Twitter, to talk about people being polite to his AI bot.
This comes after one user took to social media to write: “I wonder how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to their models.”
This prompted a response from Altman, who said: “tens of millions of dollars well spent – you never know.”
Many people have claimed that it is pointless to show respect to an AI chatbot, while others think they’ll be the ones laughing when a robot invasion takes over our planet.
Microsoft’s design manager, Kurtis Beavers, spoke of the importance of respectful language, explaining that it ‘helps generate respectful, collaborative outputs’.
“Using polite language sets a tone for the response,” he added, while a Microsoft WorkLab memo suggested: “When it clocks politeness, it’s more likely to be polite back.”
A survey carried out by Tech Radar revealed that two thirds of US citizens admitted to being nice to their chatbots, with 55% of these users admitting that it was ‘because it’s the right thing to do’, while the remaining 12% fear a robot uprising in the future.
Sam Altman has spoken out about the effects certain searches have on ChatGPT (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Several AI researchers doubt that it is within our capabilities as humans to build an ‘intelligent’ algorithm based on the large language models in place at the moment.
But it’s still a concern, given that hundreds of millions around the world rely on AI for a number of tasks.
When it comes to exactly how much energy is used by AI, the Washington Post found that generating a 100-word email every week for a year would use a shocking 7.5kWh, which is an hour’s worth of power used by nine households across the American capital.
Showing etiquette towards AI may seem a bit off, but it highlights that our actions have consequences, as chatbots are said to currently take up 2% of the world’s energy consumption.