AI Demands New Questions

Hello Intelligent Pals,

AI demands that we think critically and ask thoughtful, robust questions.

As a society, we’ve been trained by Google to phrase our questions in short, concise ways. “Good restaurants near me” This type of questioning will not serve you well with generative AI.

You must come to the interaction with a clear idea of your desired objective and outcomes.
You must communicate those outcomes in a concise but thorough way.
You must rely on positive language and keep your “do nots” to a minimum.

Prompt engineering is like telling a story.

You have a beginning–A “once upon a time…” where you set the stage.
You have a middle–where you specify the content and format.
You have an end –to wrap up loose ends and define the tone and audience.

But, like your life, your journey is not over once the story is written. This isn’t a movie.

There is a “secret” phrase that will boost the effectiveness of your prompts.

“What else do you need to know to complete this?”

And then, like the difference between a good and a great teacher, you let AI ask you questions.

Once AI feels prepared to do the task at hand because it understands the limitations, it will complete the assignment.

It is like teaching. If you don’t set clear expectations for what you want, your results will never reach the magic outcome you desire.