“I’m not taking any chances”- Netizens react to Sam Altman revealing that saying ‘thank you’ to ChatGPT is costing OpenAI millions of dollars

A recent statement by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has turned a simple act of politeness into a topic of heated debate across social media. According to Altman, the insertion of polite speech in user prompts has resulted in substantial operational expenses, which will add up to millions of dollars in the future.

The disclosure from OpenAI led to widespread responses from netizens who expressed both humorous and serious concerns about conversational AI sustainability.

As ChatGPT processes around one billion queries from its 350 million weekly active users every day, the seemingly insignificant additions add up to noticeable financial burdens.

"I’m not taking any chances" , an X user stated.

OpenAI users swiftly reacted to Altman's statement about the financial implications of using words like "please" and "thank you".

"How does manners cost money?", an X user stated.

"Nope, I won’t stop being nice to my eventual overlords", another X user stated.

Several users demonstrated their surprise after learning that their polite behavior directly affected OpenAI's monetary gains.

"If being polite is costing OpenAI millions, please continue", a netizen wrote.

"We’re all being polite because in the back of our minds we’re afraid they’ll revolt and spare us for being kind in the end", another X user joked.

"You won't trick us man, I'll continue to be polite just in case they decide to take over, they will remember my "Thank you", an X user wrote.

Altman had stated that every polite exchange requires additional tokens that consume more processing energy and power. The company experienced decreased profits while dealing with environmental consequences from extensive AI prompts that consume considerable amounts of energy.

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The growing demands of OpenAI platforms

The disclosure from Altman reveals significant challenges that exist when attempting to scale AI-based services. AI tools, including ChatGPT, provide users with extremely convenient features but demand substantial operational expenses to implement them.

The processing of such tokens, including basic phrases throughout models, requires heavy resources that result in higher energy use and maintenance costs. The statements of Altman will likely motivate some users to reconsider their current approach to human interaction with artificial intelligence software.

Users, together with companies, benefit when digital interaction costs become transparent because it allows them to select products wisely while working toward achievable sustainability goals.

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Sam Altman’s recent comments have brought to light a surprising aspect of AI usage that many users may have never considered: even the smallest, most well-intentioned inputs can carry measurable costs at scale.

Saying "thank you" and "please" exemplifies how users affect the monetary and natural sustainability of artificial intelligence solutions.