Colin Sheridan: Saying please and thank you is common courtesy — but let’s draw the line at AI

Having been put in his place by his daughter (something all parents will recognise) Colin Sheridan figures we should err on the side of kindness and courtesy

Saying thank you — to staff serving us, or to a fellow commuter who lets us out in traffic — is a tiny investment of empathy and humility. File Picture: Alamy

“Courtesy doesn’t cost a thing,” so my mother told us when we were children. 

She told us so often that we regularly said “thank you” even before we received the ice-cream cone from the guy behind the counter.