What exactly is "Prompt Engineering"? Why is it important? If AI is so sophisticated, why do we need to meticulously construct a prompt to get the desired output? Why doesn't it just intuitively understand?
Just like human interaction, the responses we receive from AI greatly depend on how we formulate our questions. That's why some talk show hosts are more engaging than others. Picture yourself as the AI, receiving a message from an unknown individual asking to explain a complex subject. Without knowing whether the person is a child or a PhD holder in the subject, it's challenging to craft an effective response.
In this guide, we'll illustrate how the construction of a prompt can alter the response from Notion AI. However, this principle generally applies to most AI services.
To start, we’re going to pretend that I have two small children that absolutely LOVE bedtime stories. The other day, I overhead one of my friends saying they use ChatGPT to write stories for their kids, so I decide to give it a try.
Go ahead and click the “Generate” button on the right side of the box below to have Notion AI respond to the prompt,
<aside> <img src="/icons/forward_gray.svg" alt="/icons/forward_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Write a bedtime story for kids.
</aside>
Chances are, you received a sweet, entertaining story. Pretty cool, right? Makes you wonder how it can get better!
However, it just so happens that my children are VERY particular about the characters in their bedtime stories. They only like it when the stories are about rainbow unicorns and there’s a castle. So let’s try again, but this time we’ll expand the prompt a bit:
Go ahead and click the “Generate” button on the right side of the box below to have Notion AI respond to the prompt,
<aside> <img src="/icons/forward_gray.svg" alt="/icons/forward_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Write a bedtime story for kids.
The main character should be a rainbow unicorn and there should be a castle in the story somehow.
</aside>
There we go, much better. But now I really want to know what else is possible!
Lately my kids have been really into a certain author whose writing style is characterized by whimsical rhymes and imaginative wordplay and whose works captivate readers both young and old. Let’s see how we do with that:
Go ahead and click the “Generate” button on the right side of the box below to have Notion AI respond to the prompt,
<aside> <img src="/icons/forward_gray.svg" alt="/icons/forward_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Write a bedtime story for kids.
The main character should be a rainbow unicorn and there should be a castle in the story somehow.
You are a well known children’s book author and your writing style is characterized by whimsical rhymes and imaginative wordplay. Your works captivate readers both young and old.
</aside>