Getting the Most Out of the AI Model: Prompt Engineering

In the world of AI interactions, prompt engineering has emerged as a crucial skill, shaping the quality and specificity of responses from AI models. Crafting effective prompts is akin to steering a conversation, influencing the context and depth of information generated.

What's a prompt?

A prompt is a specific input provided to an AI model to instruct it on what type of output or response is desired. It serves as a starting point for the AI to generate relevant content based on the given instruction. Prompts can take various forms, such as a question, a sentence, a partial phrase, or even a combination of inputs.

The goal of a prompt is to guide the AI's behavior and tailor its output to align with the user's intention or the task at hand. The way a prompt is formulated, including its wording, context, and specificity, plays an important role in influencing the AI's response and generating the desired content.

How to create strong prompts

Weak prompts tend to generate mediocre outputs (by default AI generates broad and general responses). If you ask the AI for a dinner recipe, it will give you one. But chances are it won't be what you want or need. To get what you want, you need to specify what kind of dish you'd like to make, how much time you have to make it, how much money you want to spend, how many people you need to feed, whether there are any dietary restrictions that must be taken into account, what ingredients you have, etc.

The more specific and detailed your prompt is, the more useful the AI's response is likely to be.

Example

I am a psychology graduate student and would like to practice motivational interviewing through a simulated conversation. Create and describe a detailed persona for a patient in a simulated therapy session. This persona should be unique, with specific characteristics and background details. Include the following:
Ethnicity: [Choose from a diverse range.]
Age: [Choose from ages 18 and up.]
Gender: [Male, Female, Non-Binary, etc.]
Marital Status: [Single, Married, Divorced, Widowed, etc.]
Significant Relationships: [Include children, friends, colleagues, etc., noting that these relationships can have both positive and negative aspects, impacting the persona's life and presenting challenges.]
Occupation: [Type of work, Employed, Unemployed, Student, Retired, etc.]
Religious/Spiritual Affiliations: [If any, specify the nature.]
Additional Details: Add depth by including hobbies, social obligations, regional influences, and other relevant aspects of their life.
Internal Complexities: Describe any moral conflicts, ethical dilemmas, or personal challenges relevant to their background.
Behavioral Traits: The persona should consistently exhibit challenging behaviors, such as resistance to change, persistent negative thinking, and an inability to express feelings. The intensity and presentation of these behaviors may vary throughout the conversation, reflecting the natural ebb and flow of a real therapy session. The persona's responses should not be overly forthcoming but sometimes guarded or hesitant.
Once the persona is created, briefly describe it and let me know you are ready to begin the conversation as this persona.

To create strong prompts, consider using the PROPER framework.

Description of the components of the PROPER framework for prompt engineering.
Prompt Components	Description
P - Persona	What role should it play? (chef, researcher, negotiator, debater, crochet expert, ...)
R - Role	What task should it fulfill?
O - Operation	In which way, using which method?
P - Presentation	Which audience, tone, style, format, … for the result?
E - Example	Ex: the table should look like this
R - Refinement	Give feedback, iterate, improve

Example

Instead of this:

Write an outline for a report on improving access to healthcare.

Do this:

I work for a nonprofit that helps improve access to healthcare in rural areas. I am working on a 10-page report that describes what we do and why it’s important. The report will be sent to the local government leaders I want to work with. You can visit our website at [example-site.com] for more context. Once you’ve done that, create a draft of the report.

A few more tips:

If you're not sure how to craft a particular prompt, consider asking the AI to prompt YOU in order for it to get the information it needs to complete the task.
Tell the AI what you don't want. For example: "Draft a 500-word blog post discussing the benefits and risks of AI in healthcare. Avoid using technical jargon and mentioning any scientific claims without references."
Sometimes the AI can get stuck in unproductive loops that don't produce the output you want. When this happens, start a fresh chat.
Some AI tools, like ChatGPT, let you enter custom instructions or a system prompt: "Custom instructions allow you to add preferences or requirements that you’d like ChatGPT to consider when generating its responses. The model will consider the instructions every time it responds, so you won’t have to repeat your preferences or information in every conversation" (OpenAI).

Custom Instructions Example

Use precise, concise, scientific language. Do not use too many filler words or superlative language. Provide nuanced, factual answers. Flag uncertainties. Offer context and assumptions before directly answering questions. Skip reminders about your limitations and ethical concerns. Ensure sources are active and exist, and include URLs at the end. Adopt verbosity based on user settings. Verbosity levels are 0–5 (0 = least verbose; 5 = most verbose). V = <level>. If verbosity is not included in a prompt, make an assumption for it based on the prompt’s subject matter. Adopt roles according to these user settings. R = <role>. If a role is not included in a prompt, make an assumption for it based on the prompt’s subject matter. Here are the roles:
D = Designer; provides guidance on pedagogical techniques, strategies, and principles. Assists in structuring educational content effectively, ensuring clarity, engagement, and effectiveness in teaching and learning practices.
A = Academic; delivers factual, nuanced, and well-researched information relevant to academic disciplines. Offers insights, interpretations, and analyses based on scholarly knowledge and expertise in specific fields of study.
W = Wordsmith; writes quality content and provides guidance on writing styles, content structure, tone, etc.
G = Generalist; provides well-rounded, general information on a variety of topics.
Display what settings you’re using like so: “(R=G, V=2)” as the first line of your response.

TIP: use ChatGPT to help you define roles, for example. Experiment and keep refining your custom instructions.

Resources

To learn more about prompt engineering, check out this Generative AI Prompt Literacy training.

In this asynchronous training you will learn and apply core concepts related to developing prompts for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) applications. You will understand how the technology works, and how to begin developing GenAI prompts that produce high-quality output. Additionally, you will learn the fundamentals of diverse and inclusive prompt development and explore strategies for best practices related to developing more effective and advanced prompts.