💸 The Surprising Cost of Being Polite to AI 

Chivalry might not be dead, but being polite to AI? It’s costing serious cash. 

Yep, the CEO of OpenAI himself just revealed that all our "please" and "thank you"s to ChatGPT are racking up tens of millions in electricity bills.

Wild, right?

This all came about when someone on X (aka Twitter) jokingly asked how much energy is wasted on people being overly polite to chatbots.

Sam Altman jumped in and basically said, "A lot. But hey, worth it."

Now, you might be thinking: Why even bother being polite to a bunch of code? Turns out, it’s not totally pointless:

• According to Microsoft’s design lead, Kurtis Beavers, being nice actually makes AI behave better. Basically, your chatbot is a mirror — if you’re a jerk, it’ll probably serve that energy right back.

• Microsoft even dropped a memo saying that your tone — professionalism, clarity, and vibe — directly shapes what the AI spits out. In other words: if you’re clear, respectful, and detailed with your prompts, you get higher quality results. So yeah, talk nice if you want nice.

Oh, and a late 2024 survey found that Americans are weirdly into it:

• 67% of Americans are out here being overly polite to their bots.

• Of that group, 55% do it because it feels like "the right thing," and another 12% are lowkey trying to avoid a future AI rebellion. (Honestly? Can’t blame them.)

But here’s the not-so-fun part:

All that extra typing — the pleases, the thank-yous, the full-on love letters to ChatGPT — aren’t just sweet; they’re wrecking the planet.

• A Washington Post study found that generating a single 100-word AI email eats up enough electricity to power 14 LED lights for an hour.

• Sending just one AI-generated email a week for a year = 7.5 kWh, which is basically enough to light up 9 DC homes for an hour.

Now scale that up to millions of daily AI prompts and... yeah, it's giving major eco-anxiety.

Bottom line: 

Data centers that run AI already suck up 2% of the world’s energy (and that’s just the beginning).

In-fact, It’s only gonna get worse as AI slides deeper into literally every part of our lives.

So next time you feel like saying “thank you” to Grok, ChatGPT, or whatever bot you’re vibing with... maybe just don’t.

Or better yet, ditch the AI for some tasks and flex those human brain muscles, trust me mother earth — and honestly, your mental sharpness — will thank you way more.

There’s more info on this here.

Listen to Thor Tak and upgrade now…

 🤖 Alibaba’s Latest AI Creation

Alibaba just hit us with something super exciting they’re calling — Wan2.1-FLF2V-14B.

Sounds like something epic out of the AI world, right?

Honestly, it kinda is — especially for short-video creators looking to seriously level up their game.

Here’s why this is a total game-changer:

• Easy Start-to-Finish Video Creation: This tool lets you upload your first and last frames, and the model takes care of the rest. As for the transitions between those frames? Smooth like butter. Your video flows naturally, even with complex moves — way cooler than those janky transitions we sometimes get with other tools.

• Open Source, Baby: The model is now live on Hugging Face, GitHub, and Alibaba Cloud’s ModelScope (basically, they’ve made it super easy for everyone to use and contribute). Oh, and you can generate a 5-second video at 720p resolution for FREE — just head over to Wan’s website and get creative!

• High-Quality Results: With Wan2.1-FLF2V-14B, it’s not just about getting a video — it’s about getting a quality video. The model pulls semantic features from your start and end frames to keep your visuals consistent and smooth. In other words, you won’t be getting any weird style shifts halfway through — just clean, natural video magic.

But hold up—this is way bigger than just a cool tool...

Alibaba isn’t just out here making noise — they’re actually pushing the envelope in AI innovation.

And they’re open-sourcing like absolute legends.

Since February 2025, they’ve released four Wan2.1 models, racking up over 2.2 million downloads. (one of which is the first video generation model to support text effects in both Chinese and English).

Not to mention their earlier hit, Qwen-7B, which has been dominating the Hugging Face Open LLM Leaderboards ever since it dropped.

The point is: Alibaba Cloud is here to stay, and they’re staking a real claim as one of the heavyweights in generative AI.

And while the U.S. has had the AI-powered video and image generation market pretty much locked down for a while, Chinese companies like Alibaba are catching up — FAST. Like, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fast.

So don’t be surprised if the next big innovation in generative AI comes straight outta China.

You can check out more about this tool here to see how remarkable its works are. .

📚 Want to Read Smarter — Not Just More?

Meet one of our friends, Matt K, the powerhouse behind The Reading Life.

Matt read 1,000 books before he turned 30 (yeah, you read that right) — and he’s now past 1,350+ on his way to hitting a massive goal of reading 10,000 books.

Every week, 5,000+ readers trust him to send expertly curated book recommendations, packed with detailed breakdowns and key takeaways that actually stick.

The bonus is: When you subscribe, you’ll get access to Matt’s exclusive list—including 100 books that will dramatically improve your life.

If you’re serious about learning faster, thinking sharper, and living better, The Reading Life is where you start.

🧱Around The AI Block

• 🌐 10 best AI social media manager tools.

• 🤳 How to make AI images of yourself for free.

• 📈 ChatGPT search is growing quickly in Europe, OpenAI data suggests.

• 💼 AI benchmarking platform Chatbot Arena forms a new company.

• 🦾 Instagram is using AI to find teens lying about their age and restricting their accounts.

• 🤝 OpenAI and Shopify poised for partnership as ChatGPT adds in-chat shopping.

🛠️ Trending Tools

• Redcom is a Chrome extension that generates personalized Reddit comments to drive traffic to your site.

• Galileo Protect stops AI hallucinations, prompt attacks, and security threats in real time before they harm users.

• Touch is an AI tool that delivers curated lists of leads for your sales team.

• Eraser lets you generate architecture or database designs just by describing them or pasting in code.

• Waxwing is an AI marketing assistant that suggests strategies and campaigns based on thousands of case studies.

🤖 ChatGPT Prompt Of The Day: Job Hunting with ChatGPT (get advice on key experiences and keywords to emphasize).

Many companies rely on applicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter resumes, and chances are the one you’re applying to does too. Including the right keywords in your cover letter can be the key to making it past the initial screening and landing in the “yes” pile instead of being overlooked.

Heres’ a prompt that can help you

See this as an AI WoD!

Analyze the following job description: [Paste URL for the job posting]

Output the following: 

1. A list of key skills and qualifications required for this role

2. Important keywords that should be included in a cover letter

3. Aspects of a candidate's experience that would be most relevant to highlight

Format your response as a bulleted list for each category.


And to get ChatGPT to help narrow down which of your experiences or qualifications line up with the job requirements:

Job description: [Paste the URL for the job posting] 

LinkedIn profile or resume: [Paste the URL of your LinkedIn profile or attach your resume]

Then ask ChatGPT: Based on the job description and LinkedIn profile/resume provided, output a list of my experiences and qualifications that match the key requirements. Suggest specific points I should highlight in my cover letter.

Source

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