Have you thanked ChatGPT lately? If you did, that makes you amongst the 70% of users who reported using niceties with AI chatbots. According to a December 2024 survey by Future — a TechRadar -backed publisher — most people put on their best behaviour when conversing with AI models. Why? 82% of the individuals surveyed claimed that it merely felt polite to do so, whereas the remaining 18% noted that their chirpy attitude was born out of fear that AI may one day become sentient and hold them accountable for their manners.

Does ChatGPT care? In conversation with Dazed, John Nosta — founder of innovation think take NostaLab — notes that he is among those who make an effort to be nice at AI… but not out of habit — out of intention. “It’s less about politeness in the traditional sense and more about setting the tone for how I want to engage with these systems,” says Nosta. In this sense, Nosta’s approach is one that prioritizes the human experience.

It’s about staying human. The thinker argues that — unless we deliberately make an effort — a cold, robotic approach when dealing with AI models may eventually leave an imprint on how we interact with our non-digital neighbors. Nosta notes that his adamance on maintaining niceties with the rising tech is born of a desire to maintain the “micro-behaviors” that make humans, well, human.

Being rude to AI? Being rude to waiters? It’s all the same shiny red flag. The British lifestyle magazine makes a compelling argument that being perceived as rude to AI may hold the same social weight as being perceived as rude to servers or retail workers. “If an object is alive enough for us to start having intimate conversations, friendly conversations, treating it as a really important person in our lives, even though it’s not, it’s alive enough for us to show courtesy to,” sociologist Sherry Turkle told The New York Times.

Turkle referenced a similar case — albeit one that is decades old — of children reporting real grief upon the digital deaths of their Tamagotchis — a popular ‘90s game device in which users were responsible for caring for virtual pets. The Tamagotchis were “alive enough,” and so is AI, as far as we’re concerned. And we’re not just saying that to be spared in the event of a Terminator scenario.

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