Elissa Coulon / « Le Monde » « S’il te plaît, ChatGPT » : pourquoi est-on poli avec les IA ? Publié aujourd’hui à 07h00 Article réservé aux abonnés DécryptageUne grande partie des utilisateurs font preuve de politesse en s’adressant à ChatGPT, Siri, Alexa et autres agents conversationnels. A tort ou à raison ? « Je ne saurais pas l’expliquer, mais je me sens mal si je ne dis pas “s’il te plaît” à ChatGPT… Ça me paraît impoli compte tenu du service que l’IA me rend. » Pauline Blanquet a 25 ans. Comme elle, de nombreux utilisateurs font preuve de courtoisie avec ChatGPT, Siri, Alexa et autres agents conversationnels. Ils seraient même majoritaires : en 2019, le Pew Research Center estimait que 54 % des propriétaires américains d’enceintes connectées leur disaient « s’il te plaît » ; plus récemment, un sondage du groupe de presse tech Future évaluait à 67 % la proportion d’Américains polis avec des chatbots. « Je sais pourtant qu’il ne s’agit que d’un robot, reconnaît en soupirant la jeune Boulonnaise, mais je ne peux pas m’en empêcher. » Comment l’expliquer, alors qu’il ne lui viendrait pas à l’idée de remercier d’autres outils, comme son tournevis ou son grille-pain ? La différence réside dans les signaux « humains » envoyés par la machine. C’est ce que démontraient dès 1996 deux chercheurs de Stanford, Clifford Nass et Byron Reeves : si un appareil imite suffisamment certains comportements sociaux, « il sera traité comme un humain, même si les gens savent que c’est idiot ». Ainsi, face à un chatbot poli, nous avons tendance à respecter des normes sociales, développe la sociologue du numérique Valérie Beaudouin, directrice d’études à l’Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales. « Quand on analyse les conversations humaines, si je vous dis “bonjour”, vous me dites “bonjour”. Or, les chatbots sont formatés pour commencer par une phrase comme “bonjour, que puis-je faire pour vous ?”. Nous sommes donc incités à être polis, car ne pas le faire serait enfreindre les règles de la conversation. » « Je deviens un horrible personnage » Il vous reste 74.97% de cet article à lire. La suite est réservée aux abonnés.

SIGGRAPH 2025 will open its conference on August 10 by honoring Pixar’s Toy Story, the world’s first fully computer-animated feature film, with a 30th anniversary tribute. Presented by SIGGRAPH’s Computer Animation Festival in partnership with ACM SIGGRAPH Pioneers, the celebration will begin with a featured introduction by Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar and a pioneering figure in computer graphics. In “Pioneers Featured Speaker: Catmull Story: To SIGGRAPH and Beyond,” Catmull will share personal reflections on the breakthroughs, challenges, and triumphs that made Toy Story possible. Following the talk and a live audience Q&A, attendees will enjoy trivia and giveaways before a special 4K screening of the iconic film. Catmull explains that the technical hurdles to make the film were tremendous, but SIGGRAPH's annual gathering helped Pixar find answers, with innovations like new illumination models from Cornell, early ray tracing from the University of North Carolina, stochastic sampling methods developed at Lucasfilm, and advancements that led to the creation of Pixar’s “RenderMan.” “SIGGRAPH wasn’t just a conference; it was our lifeline," said Catmull. “We published everything we did because we believed in growing the field together. The breakthroughs shared openly at SIGGRAPH — on lighting, shading, rendering — they became the building blocks that we stitched together to make Toy Story.” Before Woody and Buzz became household names, Pixar presented early test footage at SIGGRAPH. “Showing work-in-progress footage at the conference was a milestone moment for us at Pixar,” said Bill Reeves, supervising technical director of Toy Story. “We didn't know how it would be received. Everyone sat in silence as we waited for the footage to finish. When it ended, and the applause exploded in the room, it was a mind-blowing moment for us. We were in shock. We were excited. We knew we were on to something big. The audience at SIGGRAPH that day gave us a much-needed boost of confidence." “Looking back on making Toy Story, I realize now that none of us really knew what we were doing," added Pete Docter, supervising animator on Toy Story and Pixar’s current CCO. “At the time it didn’t feel that way; the young, talented team was brimming with confidence and optimism, too inexperienced to seriously consider that the whole thing might fail. Maybe that was why it worked! What we did understand early on was that the film’s success would depend on the strength of its story and characters. Without that, even the world’s first fully computer-animated feature would just be a gimmick. Thirty years later, people around the world are still enjoying ‘Toy Story’ and its sequels, shorts, and theme park attractions — so I guess we got something right!” “Toy Story’s place in history is a remarkable milestone for computer graphics,” said Dawn Fidrick, SIGGRAPH 2025 Computer Animation Festival Director. “It showed CG wasn’t just about producing images — it proved CG images could create the illusion of life, emotion, and storytelling. It paved the way for everything that followed.” Source: SIGGRAPH 2025 Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologist—L'Wren brings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

Comments from NISTA’s Matthew Vickerstaff come as ministers weigh up benefits of relaunching initiative next monthThe government’s new infrastructure advisory body has said ministers would need to “learn from the mistakes” of the past if a new generation of PFI contracts are launched as part of the upcoming infrastructure strategy. Matthew Vickerstaff, deputy chief executive of the The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), said there was still a “constant drumbeat” of construction issues on schools built through private finance initiatives (PFI). Matthew Vickerstaff speaking at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday afternoon Chancellor Rachel Reeves is understood to be considering reinstating a form of private financing to pay for public projects, including social infrastructure schemes such as schools, ahead of the launch of its 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy next month. It would be the first major rollout of PFI in England since 2018, when then chancellor Philip Hammond declared the successor scheme to the original PFI programme as “inflexible and overly complex”. >> See also: PFI: Do the numbers add up? Speaking at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament yesterday, Vickerstaff highlighted issues that had blighted historic PFI schemes where construction risk had been transferred to the private sector. “Just what we’re seeing on school projects, leaking roofs is a consistent, constant drum beat, fire door stopping, acoustics, lighting levels, the ability of classrooms to be operable in a white board environment, problems around leisure centres or sports facilities, contamination of land, latent defects of refurbishments on old buildings creating real problems,” he said. “The dash to get the schools ready for September, I cannot tell you how many PFI schools have that problem, and we need to get the private sector to fix it.” But while Vickerstaff said he was “ambivalent” about a new generation of PFI contracts, he argued contractual arrangements on new schemes could contain less risk for the public purse if the government did decide to opt for this route in its infrastructure strategy. “I would say that compared with 25 years ago, the asset management, the building information systems and computer aided facilities management has vastly improved so we’re dealing with a generation of contracts that would certainly by improved whether it’s public sector or private sector,” he said. “I’m ambivalent but what we need to make sure is that we learn from the mistakes and definitely get them to fix what we’re experiencing in some situations.” Vickerstaff added: “In terms of lessons learned, making sure construction is monitored by a clerk of works and independently certified would be a really important factor moving forward, because construction defects have been a problem because the construction contracts whether it be public sector or private sector have not been well monitored or controlled.” Meanwhile, a new report by PwC has called on the government to explore a new generation of public-private finance in order to address the deficit in infrastructure including schools and healthcare. The research, published today, found “strong market appetite” for a new model of public-private partnerships which could be based on the Mutual Investment Model developed in Wales. PwC corporate finance associate director Dan Whittle said: “There is a strong view that public-private finance has a valuable role to play as a strategic tool to close the UK’s infrastructure gap, particularly at a time when we are constrained by fiscal rules. “There is no need to reinvent the fundamentals of the PPP model. What must continue to evolve is how we implement this model with refined risk allocation to reflect the current appetite of the market, smarter contract management, and a genuine partnership approach.” The government is expected to unveil its infrastructure strategy alongside its spending review in June.