I am polite to Siri. I say please and thank you. My kids make fun of me, but it is hardwired in me.
Now there is proof that being kind to ChatGPT may yield better search results. While this @WSJ article talks about the research and discussions happening across the internet right now, I am hopeful that perhaps this starts a trend. Can AI retrain humanity to be kinder to each other? I hope so.
While we're at it, can it also train people to write again? Probably not, but I'll just take a bump on the politeness scale. And to the engineers who somehow included this important value in the code, thank you.
A recent survey showed Americans are split on being polite to AI. About 48% of 2,000 Americans surveyed by Talker Research thought it was important, with Gen Z respondents being the friendliest to bots. Around 27% of people agreed it was OK to be rude with or shout at bots. One study out of Japan—a place where rules of etiquette are ironclad—concluded that being nice to ChatGPT can pay off. Impolite prompts "may lead to increased bias, incorrect answers, or refusal of answers," the researchers found.
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