No, there’s no need to be polite to AI assistants like Siri or Alexa. While it may seem like good manners to say “please” and “thank you” to a bot, these tools are built to be efficient, not to be your friend. They are designed to respond to commands quickly and accurately. For example, when my parents and I are lost on the road, we say, “Siri, give directions to” wherever we’re going. If we said, “Siri, if you don’t mind, could you please . . .” it would just slow down the process of getting the information we need. Since AI doesn’t have feelings or require kindness to function, being direct is perfectly fine. This allows us to save our empathy and emotional energy for real human interactions, where they truly matter.
—Sharon Antony, 11th-grader