Letters
Tell us what’s on your mind
Why I say please and thank you to ChatGPT
I’d like to offer a different perspective on the debate over whether it’s pointless to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to ChatGPT. I run a business with several email subscriber lists. These subscribers either buy my products or use my services, and I maintain regular contact with them through email. Consistent communication builds trust and familiarity, and when they’re ready to buy, they’re more likely to choose someone they feel they already know – ie, me.
To help with this, I use ChatGPT to draft many of my emails. Because it can retain a sense of style within a conversation, I’ve trained it over time to understand and mirror my voice, the language, tone and personality I use when speaking to my audience.
This is where using please and thank you comes in. I use them naturally when I speak or write, whether I’m talking to a friend, a client or even an AI chatbot. Including those words in my prompts helps reinforce the kind of tone I want ChatGPT to replicate in my emails. If I didn’t use them, it wouldn’t reflect that tone in its responses, and my messages would come across colder and less aligned with my brand.
So no, politeness isn’t necessary for ChatGPT to work, but it is necessary if you want the AI to sound like you. In my case, that makes all the difference. Thank you for the conversation, and for considering a different view.
Martyn Brown