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Generative AI could change many industries, but it still requires an actual person to interact with it. Enter the prompt engineers — people and firms setting themselves up as experts at getting what you want from ChatGPT and similar tools.
Why it matters: Fulfilling AI’s promise of effective automation and productive brainstorming, many experts believe, will require skilled human operators.
“Writing a really great prompt for a chatbot persona is an amazingly high-leverage skill and an early example of programming in a little bit of natural language,” Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, said on Twitter Monday.
When prompted to define “prompt engineering,” ChatGPT itself told Axios that “effective prompt engineering is critical for generating high-quality outputs from generative AI models, as it can help ensure that the model generates content that is relevant, coherent, and consistent with the desired output.”
What they're saying: “It’s kind of like selling jeans during the gold rush,” Stephen Fraga, founder of the new chatbot-training business Prompt Yes!, told Axios, referring to the ecosystem of ventures that spring up in a boom. “It's not actually going out and digging up gold.”
State of play: Many different businesses have already jumped in, some dating back to last summer's image-generating AI craze around...