A BBC article this week asked the question on everyone’s mind: “Do you have to be polite to AI?” The piece consulted researchers, cited studies on flattery and Star Trek role-playing, and arrived at a confident conclusion. Stop treating AI like a person, it advised. Start treating it like a tool. It’s reasonable advice if your only concern is getting better outputs. But it rests on an assumption so deep that the article never examines it — and that assumption may be the most important thing a...
