Prompts are what you enter into the chat box and are the key to good chatbot conversations. They set up the type of response you will receive.
If you're not sure where to start, type almost anything, or ask it to provide you some examples of common prompts. Or just ask it any question.
If you learn how to provide better prompts, the responses will improve and be more specific. This is essentially called “prompt engineering” if you have heard that term being used anywhere.
For example, if you prompt the chatbot to provide a response in a specific style, you may receive a vastly different response.
Try this on your own to see what you get. You ask the chatbot “write me a short paragraph story about a dog that found a lost boy.”
A possible response: “A loyal dog named Rex was out for a walk when he heard a cry for help. He followed the sound and found a little boy who was lost in the woods. Rex helped the boy find his way home, and they became fast friends.”
Then try again, but ask the chatbot “write me a short paragraph story about a dog that found a lost boy, in the style of Edgar Allen Poe”
A possible response: “As the sun began to set, a little boy got lost in the dark woods. He called out for help, but nobody came. Just when he was beginning to give up hope, a loyal dog named Rex appeared. Rex led the boy through the forest and back to safety. The boy was so grateful to his furry friend for saving him, and the two became fast friends.
There are endless ways to change the prompts to get very different responses. It's best to try asking the chatbots in multiple different ways to better understand what types of responses you will get. See the tips section below for more tips.
Ask chatbots to create a specific style. For example, you can change the output to a style of language, feel, professionalism, etc.
Write a [length of text] [type of text] about [topic] for [target audience] in the style of the provided example. Capture it's tone, voice. vocabulary, and sentence structure. Example: [insert your example text here]
Example of inserting your own prompt examples into the bracket place holders: Write a one paragraph article about growing apples for people who like fruit trees, in the style of the provided example. Capture it's tone, voice, vocabulary, and sentence structure. Example: [insert your example text here]
Ask chatbots to provide a response as though it was a professional from a specific profession. For example, before the text, write “You are a _” and fill in the blank with something like “You are a professional technical writer, write me a guide on how to feed a cat.” It will likely provide you a more technical response rather than casual one.
Or ask the chatbot to be a specific profession in speaking with it. For example, asking it to “act as a relationship coach” to provide you with responses like a relationship coach may provide.
Ask chatbots to impersonate famous people, movies, and more.
For example, say “write a poem about _ (insert topic) in the style of _ (Insert famous poet here)”
You can provide some text that it can train from, such as writing the same style you want as your output, or that can
In the near future, you may even be able to ask it to reference specific websites for information to train from. Many websites and organizations are working on creating chatbots that utilize their databases of information as the training models.
Ask to have something explained to you
If you need help with ideas for prompts, there are websites dedicated to people finding and submitting the best prompts to use. Or you can even ask the chatbot for some ideas!
You can usually test out prompts directly in the chatbot by preparing the chatbot with the prompt before including the request you want. But if you want to try out prompts with less limitations, you can use the ChatGPT playground at https://platform.openai.com/playground/gpt-3
Sometimes chatbots won't provide you with the response you are looking for, or not respond at all. It might not respond if it has limitations in it's programming that doesn't allow for it to provide an answer, such as an opinion, political stances, or things that are commonly banned by law. They can also provide incorrect information as well.
If you don't get the response you are looking for, try again by asking in a different way or provide more details to what you are looking for. Just like with communicating with other people, sometimes things can be interpreted in other ways, so be patient and ask in another way.
Some services are getting too many users and therefore cannot keep up with the demand. You may want to try another service or may need to pay a subscription fee to be able to use it more.
Also due to high demand, as well as the complexity of your request, it can take extra time for the chatbot to come up with an answer. Just be patient or try another service. Many chatbot producers are working on solutions to solve demand issues.
Lastly, many chatbots are good at providing you a reason for why they cannot answer your question, or how to provide more information. Sometimes it's as easy as just asking the chatbot for help!
Prompt Engineering is usually referred to as someone who creates and sets up prompts within the chatbot service to provide users with specific or personalized responses. Most users will not use prompt engineering per say, but may do a form of prompt engineering on their own by preparing a chatbot with more details before asking a specific question.
Prompts are short and concise inputs into to help it understand the context of what result is desired, to provide responses that are more accurate and relevant. The process involves designing the prompts, testing them, and adjusting them based on their performance.
For instance, a prompt can be created for a website, that looks for a specific phrase to be asked, such as information about a specific product. When it receives that phrase from a user, it can generate the response about the product. It can be used to replace the FAQs or the knowledge database on a website or application. Instead of reading through FAQs, you can simply ask the chatbot and get an answer. This can help companies provide very specific answers to users, or tailor the answers in a specific way.
Task: Generate a personalized email recommendation for a user. Prompt: “Hi [USER NAME], what kind of emails are you interested in receiving?”
In this prompt, the user's name is integrated into the prompt, making it more personalized and engaging. The chatbot would be designed to recognize the user's name and provide a response based on their interests, which could have been previously indicated or inferred through previous interactions with the chatbot.
Need help with what prompts to use? Here are some resources that can help you see what others are using to generate their prompts:
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