Being Polite To ChatGPT Could Be Costing Millions: The Shocking Reality Behind AI's Hidden Energy

Politeness may seem free, but when it comes to ChatGPT, even saying “please” and “thank you” comes with a surprising price tag. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently revealed how polite exchanges are contributing to higher operational costs for the company. While it may sound trivial, every extra word in a conversation translates into additional computational power, impacting both financial and environmental costs. In this article, we dive deep into how these small gestures can rack up millions of dollars in electricity and token expenses for OpenAI. We also explore the inner workings of AI models like GPT-4, their tokenisation process, and how every word adds to the overall expense. As the demand for AI grows, so does the energy consumption of these massive systems. The article highlights how cutting out extra words could help save money, reduce energy consumption, and make AI systems run more efficiently, especially for businesses and frequent users. Explore the hidden costs of politeness and the growing environmental impact of AI's ever-expanding computational needs.