Readers reply: Should we be polite to voice assistants and AIs?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts This week’s question: what would the world look like if people didn’t make mistakes? I always say please and thank you to my Alexa. Why is this? I am sure it doesn’t care. Is it worth being polite to artificial assistants? Alison Williams, Toronto Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com. No, do not treat these devices as sentient life. They are designed to imitate our social behaviours, but we should not begin to think of the imitation as real. We use language to dehumanise where we should not, leading to terrible actions. By the same token, we should not use language to humanise a machine. User30000 I agree, but it’s also good to maintain the habit of politeness as a human default setting. Plus, since AI is no doubt learning how to behave from the cues we give it, it makes sense to give pleasant cues. That said, I’ve never felt myself slipping into the illusion that I was talking to a sentient being; maybe if I did I would feel the need to be ruder to jolt myself out of it! lauk From a cost and environmental p