Manners

Insulting AI chatbots is a man’s job

Only one percent of internet users have praised AI.(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Emanuel (KI-generiert))

"Dear AI, could you please formulate a reply email for me?" or "Hey AI, summarize the text, and quickly!"? Users of ChatGPT and the like have very different ways of dealing with artificial intelligence. The genders differ on one point in particular.

According to a survey by the German industry association Bitkom, just under half (46%) of internet users have already used artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini. Almost all of them (99 percent) address the AI as "you", with only one percent saying "you" formally.

Two thirds (66%) pay attention to their spelling, including correct capitalization and spelling - with older people (80% of 50 to 64-year-olds and even 86% of those aged 65 and over) making more of an effort to spell correctly than younger people (56% of 30 to 49-year-olds and 55% of 16 to 29-year-olds).

However, not even half (45 percent) usually formulate their request with a polite "please" and just 29 percent often say "thank you".

Better understandable
"Even if AI has no feelings, it can make sense to stick to normal manners. For example, AI can sometimes understand normal, politely formulated requests better because the models have been trained with this language," says Bitkom CEO Dr. Bernhard Rohleder. "Various tests have also shown that AI delivers better results if it is treated politely."

Insulting is male
Incidentally, around one in twenty people (six percent) have already insulted their AI bot at least once. There is a clear difference between the sexes. While nine percent of men have been offended, only three percent of women have. On the other hand, 13% of all AI users have also praised artificial intelligence at some point (13% of men, 14% of women).