They say that manners don’t cost a thing, but people being polite to ChatGPT is costing the company an arm and a leg.
Users saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to OpenAI’s chatbot has drastically hiked up electricity expenses for the tech firm, according to it’s CEO Sam Altman.
Although some people wouldn’t bother minding their Ps and Qs when chatting with artificial intelligence, there’s a host of people who make a point of being courteous.
And given the fact that Altman recently revealed that the memory function of ChatGPT has been ‘greatly improved’ so it can recall all of your past conversations, it’s probably not a bad idea.
I mean, the last thing you would want is a robot remembering you as rude, right?
It seems that’s what the overwhelming majority of Brits think, as research conducted in December found that 71% of people in the UK go out of their way to be polite when conversing with ChatGPT.
The survey of more than 1,000 people, conducted by Tech Radar’s Future, found that those who skip the niceties do so with the intent of being as brief as possible.
Among a variety of other reasons, 12% of people admitted they go out of their way to use good manners through fear of future consequences.
Being polite to ChatGPT is costing ‘tens of millions’ in energy, Altman said (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
However, it seems we might all be better off taking a more discourteous approach when using ChatGPT, as saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to it is apparently costing OpenAI a bomb.
In a post on X last week, Altman revealed that it costs the firm ‘tens of millions of dollars’ due to the extra energy consumption.
An inquisitive social media user had shared a tweet explaining they would love to crunch the numbers on how much the courtesy of users is costing the company.
The post read: “I wonder how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to their models.”
It got thousands of retweets as well as a whopping 182,000 likes, so it seems this query has been on a lot of other peoples minds too.
Thankfully, Altman entered the chat to dish the dirt about the fee, which comes with users expressing their gratitude for all of ChatGPT’s hard work.
Loads of people had no idea of the extra charges saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to the AI chatbot brings (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The CEO responded to the post saying: “Tens of millions of dollars well spent–you never know.”
It requires a hell of a lot of power to keep the AI chatbot working efficiently and it’s estimated that up to 0.14 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy is used for every single short response it forms.
This is equivalent to keeping 14 LED bulbs lit for one hour, if you were wondering – but imagine how much that tots up to when ChatGPT creating billions of these responses every single day.
Still, it seems Altman thinks being polite is worth the money because it allows the technology to continue to become more and more advanced.
Kurtis Beavers, a director on the design team for Microsoft Copilot, explained that AI mirrors the tone of the user and advised people it’s better to be on their best behaviour.
The tech guru said: “Using polite language sets a tone for the response. It’s a conversation.”
Featured Image Credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto
If you’re someone who spills your deepest, darkest secrets to ChatGPT on a regular basis, you might want to put a sock in it from now on.
That’s because the memory function of OpenAI’s chatbot has been ‘greatly improved’ by its creators, meaning it will now be able to recall all of your past conversations.
The digital assistant, which is powered by artificial intelligence, will now become a vault of information about its users rather than wiping its memory after each session.
Which is probably both a blessing and a curse, as although it will be able to cater to your needs more efficiently, the thought of ChatGPT cataloguing all your messages seems a bit…creepy.
The huge update, which is currently being rolled out, was announced on Thursday (10 April) by OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, in a post on X.
He wrote: “We have greatly improved memory in ChatGPT – it can now reference all your past conversations!
ChatGPT will now remember all of the conversations it has with users (Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“This is a surprisingly great feature imo, and it points at something we are excited about: AI systems that get to know you over your life, and become extremely useful and personalised.”
Altman said that the advanced memory feature would become available from Thursday for Pro users, while Plus users would get access ‘in the next few days’.
It is unclear when, if ever, this will become accessible to non-paying ChatGPT users.
As well as this, a host of European countries – including the UK – won’t be able to utilise this function for now, due to data protection regulations.
So Brits can breathe a sigh of relief, as ChatGPT still won’t be able to recall your conversations for the time being.
Altman explained that those in the ‘European Economic Area (EEA), UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein’ will miss out on the memory feature for now.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the upgrade earlier this week (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
He jokingly added in the post: “Call me, Liechtenstein let’s work this out!”
The tech entrepreneur, 39, also revealed that users would be able to ‘opt out’ of ChatGPT remembering your conversations if you’re not a fan of it.
“And you can use temporary chat if you want to have a conversation that won’t use or affect memory,” he added.
It is hoped that the update will offer users a more personalised experience when using ChatGPT, as it will build up a profile of your preferences and tone over time.
But still, let’s call a spade a spade – the chatbot is becoming increasingly human-like.