ChatGPT reveals potentially deadly cost of Earth's 'politeness footprint'
To quote the Kingsman movies, "Manners maketh man," but still, when those same manners could come at the cost of the planet, many would say be as rude as you can. Amid concerns that artificial intelligence chatbots are destroying the world with carbon emissions and guzzling water, is our new reliance on AI shortening our time on the planet even more?
It's no secret that humans are destroying the planet, with climate change being a major worry for many. There was recent drama with Jeff Bezos' wedding and all those private jets flying to Venice, while the Amazon overlord's infamous Katy Perry flight to space was also accused of pumping up the planet's emissions.
In terms of artificial intelligence, we've already seen OpenAI's Sam Altman telling users to take it easy on creating their own Studio Ghibli artworks because servers are 'melting'. A 2023 article from Earth.org also highlighted the environmental impact of ChatGPT, claiming that 700,000 liters of water were used to cool the servers that trained ChatGPT-3 at Microsoft. Research suggests that two liters of water are needed for 10 to 50 prompts, while writing a simple 100-word email can use a whole bottle of water.
Saying a polite 'please' or 'thank you' to ChatGPT is apparently a costly experience for the planet, but should we really go around being purposefully rude to these Large Language Models?
According to ChatGPT itself, manners cost (almost) nothing.
When asked how long it would take for emissions to destroy the planet by saying please and thank you to ChatGPT, the chatbot quickly rushed to its own defense.
Saying that it would take 'two quintillion (2 x 10¹⁸) extra 'please' or 'thank-you' tokens to emit the same amount of CO₂ that all of humanity produces in a single year, it goes on to say that even if everyone on Earth wrote 100 courteous words a day to ChatGPT, it would take nine million years to destroy the planet. It even signed off with a sassy: "So no, good manners won’t be what destroys the planet."
It comes after Altman suggested being polite to ChatGPT cost 'tens of millions' in electricity during an April 2025 post.
In reality, Earth's annual CO₂ emissions are said to be 40.8 gigatons, but if eight billion people were to type 100 polite words a day, it would take 300 years just to hit 40.8 gigatons. As ChatGPT reminds us: "The politeness footprint is < 0.03 % of yearly global emissions—undetectable in the climate ledger."
It's said that to combat emissions from chatbots, companies need to look at working on greener grids, batching workloads, and using more efficient models. All of these 'dwarf' the savings made on saying please or thank you, so maybe think next time you want to be rude to ChatGPT. In fact, think whether you need to bring potential harm to the planet by asking ChatGPT anything in the first place.