Introduction

Introduction to Prompt Engineering

Prompt engineering is a relatively new discipline focused on developing and optimizing prompts to effectively leverage language models (LMs) for a wide range of applications and research topics. Acquiring skills in prompt engineering helps to better understand the capabilities and limitations of large language models (LLMs).

Researchers utilize prompt engineering to enhance the performance of LLMs on a broad array of general and complex tasks like question answering and arithmetic reasoning. Developers use prompt engineering to design robust and effective prompting techniques that interact with LLMs and other tools.

Prompt engineering goes beyond just designing and developing prompts themselves. It encompasses a wide range of skills and techniques that are useful for interacting with and developing LLMs. It is a critical capability for interacting with, building, and understanding the abilities of LLMs. You can leverage prompt engineering to increase the safety of LLMs and develop new capabilities such as augmenting LLMs with domain expertise and external tools.

As artificial intelligence systems based on large language models and deep learning become more advanced and capable, the ability to effectively design prompts or instructions for these systems is becoming an increasingly important skill. Prompt engineering refers to the process of crafting clear, specific prompts that allow AI models to understand and complete desired tasks successfully.

Prompt engineering refers to the process of crafting clear, specific prompts that allow AI models to understand and complete desired tasks successfully.

Well-designed prompts are crucial for getting useful outputs from AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity etc..

A poorly worded or ambiguous prompt can lead the model to make mistakes, hallucinate, or simply fail to complete the intended task. Effective prompt engineering helps mitigate these issues and unlocks the full potential of modern AI capabilities.

A poorly worded or ambiguous prompt can lead the model to make mistakes, hallucinate, or simply fail to complete the intended task.

The chapters ahead will dive deeper into the theory and practice of prompt engineering for large language models and other general AI systems. Mastering this skill will allow you to more fully leverage the power of artificial intelligence across a wide variety of applications and use cases.