Chatbot Appreciation Day
Do you say “please” and “thank you” to chatbots? Lots of people do. Okay, I do. But it always embarrasses me a little when I say “thanks” to the automated voice from the pharmacy for refilling my prescription or type “would you please” when asking a chatbot to search the web for me. After reading a new study, however, I don’t feel quite so silly when I do that. According to a recent study, using the “magic words” with AI, such as Siri or ChatGPT, is likely to net you better results.
But that’s not the best reason for being nice to programs that almost certainly don’t care one way or another. The researchers point out that being nice to AI is just a good habit. It keeps our kindness muscles in good shape. Or maybe it’s that when we’re being kind to AI, we’re not being rude, and that means we’re not exercising our rude and nasty muscles. Maybe if they’re not exercised they will atrophy. So I guess a little bit of kindness toward machines can’t do any harm, and it might help us become better humans.
’til next time,
Avery
Image courtesy DALL-E, and yes, I said “thank you.”