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When a Toronto reader confessed to always using "please" and "thank you" with Alexa, the Guardian invited its audience to share their thoughts on the etiquette of speaking to artificial assistants.One camp warns against treating AI as sentient beings, arguing that these systems merely mimic social cues and that confusing imitation with reality can erode our language’s power to challenge dehumanisation. As User30000 put it, we should avoid both de‑humanising language toward people and humanising language toward machines.Conversely, several contributors argue that politeness serves as a useful human default. Lauk notes that courteous phrasing may reinforce positive behavioural cues for AI that learn from user input, while also keeping the speaker grounded in genuine social norms.From an ecological standpoint, extra words translate into measurable energy and water waste. Superspartan highlights that each unnecessary token adds processing load to already energy‑intensive models, and that the cumulative effect of polite phrasing across millions of daily interactions could be substantial.Academic research supports the idea that courteous language can improve AI performance. A linked study finds that polite prompts often elicit more helpful replies, treating modern models as "statistical parrots" that mirror the tone they receive. Yet Sam Altman has publicly estimated that responding to thank‑you notes costs OpenAI tens of millions of dollars, underscoring a tangible financial dimension to the debate.Some readers take a lighter view, extending politeness to elevators, SUVs and even low‑battery iPads, while others, like Martin from Dorset, argue that the practice protects the human soul rather than the machine.There is growing concern that habitual rudeness toward AI may spill over into real‑world interactions. Poridgeoates observes that younger users, who spend more time with technology than with people, risk weakening empathy and emotional‑intelligence muscles if they treat conversational agents dismissively.Louise adds that the way we speak to objects can shape broader social behaviour, especially where power imbalances exist. While AI itself may not feel insulted, the act of being rude can reinforce undesirable character traits in the speaker.Overall, the discussion reveals a split between those who see politeness as a harmless habit that can improve AI responses, and those who view it as an unnecessary drain on resources and a potential threat to human civility.

Databricks Co‑Founder Secures Prestigious ACM PrizeMatei Zaharia, co‑founder and CTO of Databricks, learned on April 8, 2026 that he had won the ACM Prize in Computing. The surprise announcement highlighted his decades‑long influence on big‑data processing and the emerging AI ecosystem.From Spark to AI Foundations: Zaharia’s Technical JourneyWhile completing his PhD at UC Berkeley under Ion Stoica in 2009, Zaharia released Apache Spark as an open‑source project that dramatically accelerated big‑data workloads. Spark became the engine that powered the early data‑science wave, and its success seeded the creation of Databricks, which has since evolved into a cloud‑native AI and data platform.2009 – Spark open‑source launch2013 – Databricks founded2026 – ACM Prize awardedFinancial Scale of Databricks and the ACM PrizeDatabricks has raised more than $20 billion in venture funding, reaching a valuation of $134 billion and a revenue run‑rate of $5.4 billion. The ACM award includes a cash prize of $250,000, which Zaharia intends to donate to an as‑yet‑undetermined charity.Funding: > $20 BValuation: $134 BRevenue run‑rate: $5.4 BACM cash prize: $250 KImplications for AI Development and Industry Perception of AGIZaharia’s bold statement—“AGI is here already”—challenges the conventional view that artificial general intelligence is a distant goal. He argues that current models already exhibit general‑purpose capabilities, but humans tend to judge them by human standards, which can obscure their true potential.He also warned about the security risks of AI agents that mimic trusted human assistants, citing the example of the “OpenClaw” agent that could inadvertently expose passwords or spend money without user consent.Future Outlook: AI‑Driven Research and Security ChallengesLooking ahead, Zaharia envisions AI becoming a universal research assistant—automating biology experiments, enhancing data compilation, and providing “AI for search” tailored to engineering and scientific inquiry. He stresses the need for robust security frameworks as AI agents become more autonomous.AI‑augmented research across biology, engineering, and data scienceEmphasis on non‑hallucinating, reliable modelsUrgent call for security standards for AI agents

The Mythos Preview: A New Frontier in AI‑Powered Cyber DefenseOn Tuesday, April 7, 2026, Anthropic announced a limited rollout of Mythos, its latest frontier model, to a curated cohort of partner organizations. Branded as part of Project Glasswing, the initiative aims to harness Mythos for "defensive security work" and to harden critical software against emerging threats.Numbers Behind the Launch: Scale, Scope, and Early Findings12 partner organizations (including Amazon, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Linux Foundation, Microsoft, and Palo Alto Networks) will directly test the model.40 organizations in total will receive preview access.Mythos has already identified thousands of zero‑day vulnerabilities, many classified as critical and dating back one to two decades.Anthropic’s recent mishap exposed ~2,000 source‑code files and over 500,000 lines of code in its Claude Code 2.1.88 release.Strategic Implications: AI Meets Defensive CybersecurityThe deployment marks a significant pivot for AI labs: moving from general‑purpose assistants toward specialized, high‑stakes security tooling. By scanning both proprietary and open‑source codebases, Mythos could accelerate vulnerability remediation cycles that traditionally take months. The collaboration model—where partners share insights back to the broader tech ecosystem—promises a collective uplift in defensive capabilities.Regulatory and Market Outlook: Risks, Rewards, and the Road AheadAnthropic is already in "ongoing discussions" with U.S. federal officials, a dialogue complicated by an existing legal battle with the Pentagon over supply‑chain risk concerns. While the company emphasizes defensive use, the leaked internal memo warned that a weaponized version of Mythos could become a powerful tool for threat actors. This dual‑use tension is likely to attract heightened scrutiny from policymakers and may shape future AI‑security standards.Future Trajectory: From Limited Preview to Industry‑Wide AdoptionIf Mythos delivers on its early promise, Anthropic could expand access beyond the initial 40 organizations, positioning the model as a de‑facto security layer for software development pipelines. Success would also reinforce Anthropic’s claim of having the "most powerful" AI model to date, potentially spurring competitors to accelerate their own security‑focused AI research.

The question of whether we should be polite to voice assistants and artificial intelligence systems has sparked a thought-provoking discussion. A reader from Toronto, Alison Williams, shared her habit of saying 'please' and 'thank you' to her Alexa, despite being certain that the device doesn't care.This raises a broader inquiry: Is it worth being polite to artificial assistants? While these systems may not possess consciousness or emotions, the act of being polite may reflect more on human behavior and social norms than on the machines themselves.Readers are invited to share their thoughts and responses can be posted below or emailed to [email protected]. A selection of responses will be published in a future edition.