Crafting effective AI prompts: Tips and best practices

As a Prompt Engineer at Copy.ai, Anna Bernstein’s responsibilities include creating effective prompts to train AI bots to generate accurate and high-quality writing for emails and posts. To get the best results using AI technology, Anna recommends following three guidelines when creating prompts. We'll review the guidelines below, but first, a proper introduction to Anna Bernstein and her expertise.

Anna Bernstein

Anna Bernstein began her career as a freelance writer and historical research assistant, spending most of her time browsing On microfilm in the library. However, her career path took a new direction when she became a fast engineer, contributing to the advancement of the world's most innovative technologies.

In the summer of 2021, Anna met someone who was employed by Copy.ai, a company that specializes in creating artificial intelligence tools that use OpenAI’s GPT for various online platforms such as blogs, sales emails, and social media posts) to generate copy-3 language model. Anna learned that the company faced challenges with product quality and was given the opportunity to work as a just-in-time engineer to improve results. Despite having no technical background, Anna accepted the job because she found the opportunity fascinating and was eager to escape the pressures of freelancing and pursue a new career path.

Initially, Anna struggled with her new role, but under the guidance of the founder, she learned that the tasks prompted were similar to casting a spell, and a slight mistake could cause the desired outcome to fail. Anna took this advice to heart and found a better solution for pitch compliance. Her innovative approach to improving prompts led to a full-time offer at Copy.ai, where she continues to contribute her expertise to optimize the performance of AI tools.

Anna’s role as a prompt engineer at Copy.ai has expanded significantly since she first joined the company. She is now responsible for enhancing the performance of existing AI tools and developing new ones to ensure AI provides the best response to users.

Anna's day-to-day activities include creating text-based prompts, which she customizes based on user requirements in order to generate high-quality, grammatically correct and factually accurate content, such as blog posts, for various platforms.

Anna's tips are designed using two approaches: instruction-based and example-based. Instruction-based prompts guide the AI ​​in writing content based on specific standards, while example-based prompts provide examples for the AI ​​to follow.

In addition to her live engineering responsibilities, Anna provides advice on how AI models should behave and how to improve their performance. She also determines which models to use and determines the best approach to creating specific tools.

As a poet, Anna enjoys the creative aspect of her work, especially when she can come up with unconventional prompts and produce impressive results. However, this work can also be tedious and time-consuming, as she spends hours or even weeks testing and refining prompts to ensure they work as expected.

Despite the challenges, Anna is excited about the unpredictability of the job. One of the misconceptions she encounters about AI is that it is sentient, but it is not. She believes this misconception stems from popular culture's portrayal of artificial intelligence as scary and unpredictable.

Anna admits that writing good prompts is easy to get started but challenging to master. She developed various strategies through trial and error to improve the effectiveness of her prompts, some of which were unconventional in structure.

Tips for Writing Prompts from AI Prompt Engineers

Use thesaurus

It is important to remember that making AI Prompts is a delicate process, use The difference between the right word or phrasing can determine the success of an AI output. When you get stuck with a prompt, it's crucial not to give up too quickly. Instead, try using a thesaurus to find alternative words or phrases that would make the prompt more effective. Try different synonyms for more accurate and high-quality results.

Focus on Verbs

Verbs are an important part of any prompt, as they instruct the AI ​​to perform specific actions. When crafting a prompt, it's essential to use verbs that clearly express your intention and desired outcome. For example, using verbs like "rewrite" or "condense" may produce different results, even though they look similar. By carefully choosing verbs that accurately convey your intended action, you can increase the likelihood that your AI will produce the desired output. Therefore, be careful about the verbs you use in your prompts to ensure the AI ​​fully understands your request.

Leveraging ChatGPT’s Intent Recognition

ChatGPT, like other AI models, excels at understanding the intent behind prompts. Therefore, being clear about your intentions from the outset is crucial to increasing your chances of producing accurate and high-quality results. Experimenting with different wording, tenses, and methods can also help improve the effectiveness of your prompts. For example, starting with a statement like "Today, we're going to write an XYZ" or "We're trying to write an XYZ and we'd like your input" can give ChatGPT a better understanding of the task hand. By providing an umbrella of intent over your prompts, you improve the AI's ability to generate the desired output. Therefore, it is necessary to try different ways of presenting your intentions to produce the best results.

Our Top Three Tips for Making AI Tips

Just to round out this article and give you more to work with, here are three of our own tips for generating effective AI tips.

Be concise

Creating clear and concise AI prompts is critical to ensuring that the AI ​​produces accurate and high-quality output. The success of an AI depends on the clarity and specificity of the cues it receives. Therefore, it is crucial to write tips that provide accurate instructions and leave no room for ambiguity or confusion. When creating prompts, focus on clarity using simple, straightforward language that the AI ​​can easily understand. Avoiding vague or overly broad cues helps ensure that the AI ​​understands exactly what is expected of it and produces the desired output. Additionally, using concise language helps simplify the prompts and makes it easier for the AI ​​to understand.

Provide context and examples

To make effective AI prompts, it is crucial to provide context and examples to help the AI ​​better understand your intent and produce the desired output. Context is essential because it provides a framework for the AI ​​to work within and ensures that the AI ​​produces relevant and accurate results. By providing context, you can guide the AI ​​to produce output that matches your goals. For example, say you want AI to generate a blog post about a new product launch. A prompt like "Write a blog post about our new product launch" might be too broad and not provide enough context for the AI ​​to understand what you're looking for. However, a prompt like “Write a blog post about our new eco-friendly cleaning product and highlight its unique features and benefits”

Test and refine your prompt

Test and Improving your tips can help you identify any areas for improvement and fine-tune your tips for optimal results. Experimenting with different wording, tenses, and methods can also help improve the effectiveness of your prompts. Your prompts must be tested thoroughly and adjusted as necessary to ensure that the AI ​​produces accurate and high-quality output. Additionally, analyzing the results of previous prompts can help you identify patterns and trends that can inform future prompt creation. By testing and refining your tips, you can continually improve the performance of the AI ​​tools you're using.

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