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> against specializing in using someone else's product I'm assuming you're a software engineer of some sort. Do you have an issue with using computers even tho

by yunwal 4y ago

> against specializing in using someone else's product I'm assuming you're a software engineer of some sort. Do you have an issue with using computers even though they're made by someone else? I'd assume the answer "no", but you'd probably be uncomfortable if you only knew how to use a MacBook Pro (or whatever). Prompt engineering, if it does take off as a real profession, will be the same. The skillset should be applicable whether you use Dall-E or an open-source generative model.

erulabs 4y ago
Sure - I tell folks who work in IT or make iOS apps the exact same thing - specializing in someone else's technology is dangerous. "Computers are made by someone else" sidesteps the point. You can build your own computer at home. You cannot build your own ChatGPT at home, because the exact way in which it was constructed has not been disclosed. If the author was learning how to work with open-source AI tooling, then that's amazing and I bet they'll do very well. If they're learning how to make MegaCorps product dance a bit, then they've chosen a career that can disappear in a moment. It's possible the prompts are generic enough that they work well against all AIs - but then you'd just be a normal author, no? If you take a peek at the "prompt engineering" guides out there - it's mostly tricks like early-google SEO was - another industry that probably paid well for years before disappearing overnight.
- yunwal 4y ago
  > It's possible the prompts are generic enough that they work well against all AIs The skill here is to be able to systematically understand language of different AIs and how to instruct them. The various "tips and tricks" will eventually get synthesized into higher-level observations as time goes on. > SEO Still a huge industry, just not in the way we expected back then. I'm sure at least some of the people that were doing early-google SEO are still doing SEO (just from the other direction). And knowing the quirks of early Google probably helps them a lot! Maybe you'd consider it a different skill, but I think there's a lot to learn just by trying to squeeze the best results out of these AI models, even if they vastly change over the next few years.

by yunwal 4y ago

erulabs 4y ago

Sure - I tell folks who work in IT or make iOS apps the exact same thing - specializing in someone else's technology is dangerous. "Computers are made by someone else" sidesteps the point. You can build your own computer at home. You cannot build your own ChatGPT at home, because the exact way in which it was constructed has not been disclosed. If the author was learning how to work with open-source AI tooling, then that's amazing and I bet they'll do very well. If they're learning how to make MegaCorps product dance a bit, then they've chosen a career that can disappear in a moment. It's possible the prompts are generic enough that they work well against all AIs - but then you'd just be a normal author, no? If you take a peek at the "prompt engineering" guides out there - it's mostly tricks like early-google SEO was - another industry that probably paid well for years before disappearing overnight.

yunwal 4y ago
> It's possible the prompts are generic enough that they work well against all AIs The skill here is to be able to systematically understand language of different AIs and how to instruct them. The various "tips and tricks" will eventually get synthesized into higher-level observations as time goes on. > SEO Still a huge industry, just not in the way we expected back then. I'm sure at least some of the people that were doing early-google SEO are still doing SEO (just from the other direction). And knowing the quirks of early Google probably helps them a lot! Maybe you'd consider it a different skill, but I think there's a lot to learn just by trying to squeeze the best results out of these AI models, even if they vastly change over the next few years.