Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Prompt Engineering
Definition
Prompt engineering is the process of structuring text that can be interpreted and understood by a generative AI model. A prompt is natural language text describing the task that an AI should perform.
Why It Matters
The quality of the output from a Large Language Model (LLM) is highly dependent on the quality of the prompt. Prompt engineering is the art and science of designing effective prompts to get the desired response from the model.
Contextual Example
Instead of simply asking an LLM "Summarize this text," a good prompt might be: "Summarize the following text for a fifth-grade audience in three bullet points." This more specific prompt will yield a much better result.
Common Misunderstandings
- It involves techniques like providing examples ("few-shot learning"), giving the model a "persona," and clearly defining the desired output format.
- Prompt engineering is a key skill for effectively working with modern generative AI models.