In a break from our normal practice, Ars is publishing this helpful guide to knowing how to prompt the "human brain," should you encounter one during your daily routine.
While AI assistants like ChatGPT have taken the world by storm, a growing body of research shows that it's also possible to generate useful outputs from what might be called "human language models," or people. Much like large language models (LLMs) in AI, HLMs have the ability to take information you provide and transform it into meaningful responses—if you know how to craft effective instructions, called "prompts."
Human prompt engineering is an ancient art form dating at least back to Aristotle's time, and it also became widely popular through books published in the modern era before the advent of computers.
Since interacting with humans can be difficult, we've put together a guide to a few key prompting techniques that will help you get the most out of conversations with human language models. But first, let's go over some of what HLMs can do.
[...] Humans are complex and unpredictable models, so even the most carefully crafted prompts can sometimes lead to surprising outputs. Be patient, iterative, and open to feedback from the person as you work to fine-tune your human prompting skills. With practice, you'll be able to generate the desired responses from people while also respecting personal boundaries.
People like this used to be called, con men and frauds, or charismatic leaders and politicians. Then again, is there a difference?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Snotnose on Saturday April 06, @01:07AM (3 children)
I'm old. Executive assistant, sanitation engineer, lobby ambassador, and team member I could stomach, although my cheeks might have puffed out a bit as I threw up a bit in my mouth.
But prompt engineer? AKA the person who asks an AI a question?
I'm glad I'm retired and can now openly snicker at people who call themselves stupid job titles without worrying about HR.
Oh, those were just the ones I personally experienced before retiring. In order: secretary, janitor, receptionist, and worker bee.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday April 06, @01:27AM
Here, in old times, bank clerk doomed to interact with customers was called "referent". Lowest title in banking hierarchy. "Bankéř" [banker] was reserved for 'owner of a bank'.
Today, those lowly clerks are called "osobní bankéř" [personal banker], now behaviorally exhibiting their illusory power of bankers over clients too.
As for hacking people with speech: pace is a critical factor. That's known for centuries. Definition: Pace is tempo of information flow.
Let's AIs master that. Pace is substantial for effective hypnosis on humans.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday April 06, @05:27AM
Don't knock them, it could be a pretty dangerous vocation [youtu.be] as time goes on.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday April 06, @08:33PM
It's a software engineer who took a weekend how-to-use-ChatGPT online course to learn the wizardry power words to coax the silicon to do their bidding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prompt_engineering [wikipedia.org]
compiling...
(Score: 2) by jman on Sunday April 07, @10:24AM
Hilarious article. They must have run out of room a couple of days prior; it clearly should have been posted on the 1st.