Cambridge Professor explains why you should always say 'please' and 'thank you' to AI

Artificial intelligence chat bots are more popular than ever before, with the human race steadily becoming more reliant on them for information.

Although AI is still capable of some gaffes, it's a pretty solid source of information when it comes to researching, although I'd stress that's probably what we should be using it for, rather than making terrible films or even starting a relationship with it.

Amid a loneliness epidemic, it's perhaps not surprising that so many people now speak with AI technology on a daily basis, despite its impact on the environment and the likely way in which it will soon take over a human race incapable of answering basic questions without the help of ChatGPT.

Naturally, those people who do speak with chat bots may want to type as they would speak in real life, and that means saying please and thank you when making requests.

It's not worth being rude to these guys (Getty Stock)

This has already been warned against in the past, with OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman suggesting that it is costing the company millions every time we use our manners, due to increased electricity use.

However, a Cambridge professor has now stressed why we should stick to being polite when using AI technology, and it's not just to keep the robots on side when they inevitably take over the world.

Speaking on her YouTube channel, maths professor Hannah Fry explained that if we continue to treat chat bots like an encyclopaedia of knowledge, they will continue to give us encyclopaedic answers.

Instead, she claims that we should be treating them as a versatile actor, who is capable of playing many different roles. If we want a highly educated, scientific answer to a question, then we should tell the chat bot that that is what it actually is.

In the same way, if we want a Shakespearean-like response, then we should treat it like the bard himself.

And since we'd treat this versatile actor in real life with manners, she explains that we should be doing the exact same with our AI, without even considering the added benefit of costing AI companies millions.

Meanwhile, the 'Godfather of AI' - British computer scientist and Nobel Prize laureate Geoffrey Hinton, has explained that we may only have one hope when it comes to keeping the superintelligent technology on our side as it grows more and more powerful.

The Godfather of AI is less optimistic about our future with the technology (Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile for Collision via Getty Images)

He believes that AI systems 'will very quickly develop two subgoals, if they’re smart: One is to stay alive… (and) the other subgoal is to get more control'.

Hinton continued: “There is good reason to believe that any kind of agentic AI will try to stay alive.

“The right model is the only model we have of a more intelligent thing being controlled by a less intelligent thing, which is a mother being controlled by her baby.

“That’s the only good outcome. If it’s not going to parent me, it’s going to replace me,” he said.

“These super-intelligent caring AI mothers, most of them won’t want to get rid of the maternal instinct because they don’t want us to die.”

From my experience, telling your mum please and thank you is far more likely to keep you on her side, so as long as the AI creators keep this sort of maternal instinct in future systems, then saying please and thank you is only going to benefit us in both the short and long term.