Saying "please" and "thank you" to ChatGPT emerged primarily as a form of social etiquette combined with a superstition that, one day, an AI overlord might be able to know if you were nice to it ...

Saying “please” and “thank you” is part of how we talk to people, ... So, while saying “please” and “thank you” might only add a few tokens, at scale, that politeness can add up.