| I raised my 12-year-old son so that he always says his please and thank yous. He’s so well-mannered that he now even utters those magic words to chatbots. But he has good reason: he’s “on friendly terms with AI” for when the “inevitable robot apocalypse” comes. Smart thinking. I had a good laugh, of course, and shared this anecdote with friends and family. It turns out he’s not the only kid being polite when seeking information from various artificial intelligence sources. The habit also extends beyond my immediate circle of courteous buddies, with surveys and studies looking at why people do this. From a purely practical stance, polite language can help AI understand the user’s intent more clearly, which means you may get a more helpful answer. Researchers at Japan's Waseda University, along with the country’s Riken scientific institute, have shown that politeness in prompts generally improves the performance across English, Chinese, and Japanese language models. But perhaps more importantly, one study showed that polite people are happier because neurochemical reactions take place when people show respect, consideration and kindness to others. The release of dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin are a powerful concoction. There’s an argument that the more we teach robots good social norms, the more human they seem. And that can make them a tad frightening because the more human they seem the more we may rely on them for companionship. In a world where reports of loneliness are rising, a study from MIT Media Lab found that frequent chatbot users feel more lonely and are more emotionally dependent on these tools. That being said, we’re all going to be interacting with AI chatbots more, especially kids. Being polite to them is key to improving overall behavior, according to Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight in London. “If it becomes acceptable to be disrespectful to AI assistants, that behavior will start to leach into interpersonal interactions, and that’s a slippery slope,” he says. “As a parent, I don’t think it is right for kids to hear impolite interactions, even if it is an inanimate platform.” Some tech companies are ahead of the game: Amazon introduced a politeness feature called Magic Word in 2018, which encouraged children to say please and thank you by acknowledging use of the terms. At CCS Insight, “we’ve predicted that by 2030, half of UK schoolchildren will identify a generative AI avatar as one of their best friends,” Wood says. “Children can make friends with all manner of inanimate objects, from pieces of plastic to rocks.” My son and his school friends spend more time on screens and interacting with AI than I’d like to admit. But at least they’re getting the mental health benefits of being polite in all their various interactions. — Janice Kew | 
