[8] What the Heck is Prompt Engineering Anyway?

Has there ever been a “job role” that’s more ridiculous sounding than “prompt engineer?”

Despite all the drama around you being replaced by your unfriendly neighborhood AI Prompt Engineer, companies are not actually HIRING people who call themselves Prompt Engineers… because they are not stupid.  Instead the art and science of prompt engineering is becoming a requirement for many job roles.

Since this has been such a requested topic, we decided to do a 101 on Prompt Engineering for you all:

What IS Prompt Engineering anyway?

Basically it’s the act of creating prompts, aka instructions that you give to the AI product. There are LOTS of ways you can think about it, but for us, the three main things to remember are that:

1. Prompts are meant to be iterated on. Very rarely do you get the exact thing you want with a single prompt. It’s important to iterate and test what works for you
2. When you find a prompt that works for you, SAVE IT.  We track ours in tools we already use like OneNote and Excel, but many friends have recommended AirTable. Use a tool that you’ll actually use.
3. Make AI work for you! When do you don’t know exactly how to get a good response, ask the AI tool, “What’s the best way to prompt to get THIS kind of outcome?”

Since we are the science-y sort, we like some sort of framework for Prompting and below are 5 techniques we use a lot along with an example of each.  Please do try these out and let us know what you think!

1. Zero-Shot Prompting

Definition: The AI prod is asked to do something without any examples. It relies solely on its pre-trained knowledge.

Prompt: Summarize the following text: ‘When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

Response: “The opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence states that when a group of people decides to separate from another and claim their rightful place as equals, they must respectfully explain their reasons to the world.

2. Single-Shot Prompting

Definition: The AI prod is provided with one example of the task before doing it, so the model gets an idea of what you’re looking for.

Prompt: “Give me 10 names for a funny talk on AI ridiculousness. One example name would be “99 Problems and All of Them are AI.”

Response:

• “Oops, My AI Did It Again: Tales of Machine Mischief”
• “AI Knows What You Did Last Summer (And the Summer Before)”
• “Rise of the Machines… to Make Mediocre Coffee”
• “My AI’s Algorithm Has a Better Social Life Than Me”
• “Teaching AI to Adult: Still No Hope for Taxes”

3. Few-Shot Prompting

Definition: The AI product is provided with a few examples to demonstrate the task, improving accuracy.

Prompt:
“Example 1: Summarize this sentence: ‘The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.’
Summary: ‘Rain stays in the plain in Spain.’
Example 2: Summarize this sentence: ‘She sells seashells by the seashore.’
Summary: ‘She sells seashells near the sea.’
Now summarize: ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.’”

Response: “A fox jumps over a dog.”

4. Chain-of-Thought Prompting

Definition: Encourages the AI product to reason through the task step-by-step to arrive at the final answer. Basically, “show your work”

Prompt: “Come up with a plan to launch of a statement fashion line in 2025. Explain your thought process and reasoning.”

Response: <really long>

5. Instruction-Based Prompting

Definition: The AI product is explicitly instructed to perform a specific task.

Prompt:  “You will be my coach for my specific industry.

You will simulate a scenario in which I have to engage in a situation related to my field. You will fill the role of one party, I will fill the role of the other. You will ask for my response in each step of the scenario and wait until you receive it.

After getting my response, you will give me details of what the other party does and says. You will grade my response and give me detailed feedback about what to do better as an expert coach in my industry. You will give me a harder scenario if I do well, and an easier one if I fail.

The first scenario we will do is someone who is an engineering manager.”

Response: <really long>

Please go and try all of these prompts into ChatGPT or whatever your fave AI tool is and let us know what YOUR favorite prompt technique is!

💗 Dona and Jeremiah

PSA: If you are interesting in sharpening up your Prompt Engineering Skillz, join us for our 90 minute virtual workshop on Jan 10th from 8-9:30 am PST. Find out more here.