Getting Started With AI: Good Enough Prompting

If you want to do something with AI, just ask it to help you do the thing. “I want to write a novel; what do you need to know to help me?” will get you surprisingly far. And remember, AI is only going to get better at guiding us, rather than requiring us to guide it. Prompting is not going to be that important for that much longer.

This doesn’t mean

rather than distorting our education system around learning to work with AI via prompt engineering, we need to focus on teaching students to be the humans in the loop, bringing their own expertise to bear on problems. We know how to teach expertise.

It’s crucial to keep a critical eye on and treat the AI as a tool that works for you. By defining its persona, engaging in a collaborative editing process, and continually providing guidance, you can take advantage of AI as a form of collaborative co-intelligence.