United Kingdom, June 15 -- Saying "please" and "thank you" to artificial intelligence chatbots could be wasting vast amounts of energy, according to researchers who say shorter prompts would significantly reduce the technology's environmental impact.

A study by the United Nations University estimated that removing unnecessary pleasantries from conversations with AI systems could save between 87 and 98 gigawatt hours of electricity every year.

Researchers said that amount of energy would be enough to power a city the size of Leicester, with a population of around 330,000 people, for an entire year.

The findings highlight the hidden environmental cost of everyday interactions with AI tools.

Chatbots process requests by breaking users' i...