Like many people, I’ve been using AI lately to help with my accounting, technology problems and occasional recipes that use all the leftovers in my fridge.

Anyone for Kraft Dinner and peanut butter, topped with tinned sardines and five-year-old maraschino cherries?

Yet the strange thing is I keep instinctively adding the words “please” and “thanks” to many of my dealings with AI.

Or saying “sorry” to it when I make a confusing typing mistake in a query.

Several people I know do the same, including some francophones who say “merci” to AI.

I thought this was simply because we’re all polite Canadians who are tempted to say “Please mail this envelope” to a mailbox.

But I’ve recently discovered we are far from alone.

A recent U.S. survey found 86 per cent of office workers say “please” and “thanks” to AI, too.

As well, two-thirds of them think it’s important to be courteous with AI, especially younger tech-savvy Gen Zs.

That’s partly because AI’s responses seem so eerily like a human’s that it’s hard not to treat it as politely as one.

But we are also obeying long-ingrained human social rules, like when we brake at a stop sign in the dead of night on a deserted country road because it’s a lifelong habit.

Or instinctively press the 20 per cent tip option at the dépanneur terminal........

© Montreal Gazette