On June 20th, I was invited to speak on Pro TV about ChatGPT's recent server outage and the real costs of AI politeness, exploring what it means when AI systems become unavailable during critical moments.
The discussion focused on ChatGPT's sudden unavailability on Tuesday when the platform's servers crashed, highlighting the growing dependency on AI assistants in educational and professional settings. This occurred during final exam periods in several countries, demonstrating both the utility and vulnerability of these systems.
"People ask about the cost of being polite to ChatGPT, but that's the wrong question. The real cost showed up when the servers went down during exam season - suddenly thousands of students couldn't access the tool they'd built their study routine around."
We explored the broader implications of AI system reliability and the psychological aspects of human-AI interaction. The conversation covered how users have integrated these tools into their daily workflows and what happens when that integration is disrupted.
The Hidden Costs of AI Dependency
The outage revealed several critical dependencies:
- Students relying on AI for exam preparation and study assistance
- Professionals using AI for daily workflow automation
- Content creators depending on AI for ideation and writing
- Businesses integrating AI into customer service and operations
The discussion highlighted how AI has moved from being a helpful tool to becoming an essential infrastructure component for many users' daily activities.
Politeness and AI Interaction
Beyond the technical outage, we explored the psychological aspects of AI interaction - why users say "please" and "thank you" to ChatGPT, and what this reveals about our evolving relationship with artificial intelligence.
"When we're polite to AI, we're not just being courteous - we're practicing behaviors that maintain our humanity and social norms, even in interactions with machines. It's less about the AI's feelings and more about preserving our own social fabric."
Building Resilient AI Integration
The outage served as a reminder of the importance of building resilient workflows that don't completely depend on single AI systems. We discussed strategies for maintaining productivity and continuity when AI tools become unavailable.
This discussion on Pro TV emphasized the need for thoughtful AI integration - one that enhances human capabilities without creating critical dependencies that can disrupt essential activities like education and work when systems inevitably experience downtime.