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Imagine a course called "Google Prompt Engineering". If nothing else, the word "engineering" feels like a huge stretch. Fwiw also not a big fan of the "Software

by thunky 3y ago

Imagine a course called "Google Prompt Engineering". If nothing else, the word "engineering" feels like a huge stretch. Fwiw also not a big fan of the "Software Engineer" title as it's commonly applied.

kranke155 3y ago
Prompt engineering seems a little like an attempt to make it seem like this will be “a future profession” you could develop. Seems more likely to me that NLP advances will just make the whole idea obsolete quite quickly ?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
cardosof 3y ago
I too don't like to use the title Engineer lightly, but what would be a good title for someone who's job is building and maintaining chains of prompts that perform X,Y,Z in a system? Developer? The comparison with search engines is naive since those are made for end users and LLMs are a piece of software that are a part of a bigger solution.
- thunky 3y ago
  Search engines can be used by anything, not just end users. And ChatGPT can be used by end users. So I don't see that much of a difference. If I build and maintain chains of Google's APIs calls to develop an application that performs X, Y, and Z then I would say that I'm an "application developer", not a "Google API engineer". I mean I assume there is going to more to the application than just a pile of API calls. So maybe a good name for this course would be "Building applications using Large Language Models", which is actually how the course is described in the intro.
  - zamnos 3y ago
    Application developers output applications, but somehow "essay developer" or "email developer" doesn't have the right feel to it. Maybe "GPT-assisted copywriter"? or for a more specalizied role, "GPT-assisted training developer"? Or maybe it's just a modern expected skill, and those who choose not to incorporate it in their workflow are left to struggle to keep up, just like if someone refused to use Google in 2001. After all, it's not like I list Google-fu in the skills section of my resume, despite that being a skill I use every day and find indispensable.
    - thunky 3y ago
      > Or maybe it's just a modern expected skill Yeah I agree with this. The tool is not the product or profession.
seanhunter 3y ago
In the course they use Python notebooks to make a chatbot that uses openAI's api. It's not just "how to make good prompts" (although they do have that in the first 5 mins or so).
- thunky 3y ago
  I think we agree: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35741552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35741552
wrycoder 3y ago
In fifty years, there will be a Ng’s School of Magic and Useful Incantations. How all that stuff works will have been forgotten by the human race.
wodenokoto 3y ago
I see it as the same engineering used in “social engineering”.
- zamnos 3y ago
  Which is to say, it's the original hack and possibly the most important branch? Not sure I agree with that, but it's not my claim.
noonething 3y ago
Yeah if anything, your a Wizard.

by thunky 3y ago

kranke155 3y ago

Prompt engineering seems a little like an attempt to make it seem like this will be “a future profession” you could develop. Seems more likely to me that NLP advances will just make the whole idea obsolete quite quickly ?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

cardosof 3y ago

I too don't like to use the title Engineer lightly, but what would be a good title for someone who's job is building and maintaining chains of prompts that perform X,Y,Z in a system? Developer? The comparison with search engines is naive since those are made for end users and LLMs are a piece of software that are a part of a bigger solution.

thunky 3y ago
Search engines can be used by anything, not just end users. And ChatGPT can be used by end users. So I don't see that much of a difference. If I build and maintain chains of Google's APIs calls to develop an application that performs X, Y, and Z then I would say that I'm an "application developer", not a "Google API engineer". I mean I assume there is going to more to the application than just a pile of API calls. So maybe a good name for this course would be "Building applications using Large Language Models", which is actually how the course is described in the intro.
- zamnos 3y ago
  Application developers output applications, but somehow "essay developer" or "email developer" doesn't have the right feel to it. Maybe "GPT-assisted copywriter"? or for a more specalizied role, "GPT-assisted training developer"? Or maybe it's just a modern expected skill, and those who choose not to incorporate it in their workflow are left to struggle to keep up, just like if someone refused to use Google in 2001. After all, it's not like I list Google-fu in the skills section of my resume, despite that being a skill I use every day and find indispensable.
  - thunky 3y ago
    > Or maybe it's just a modern expected skill Yeah I agree with this. The tool is not the product or profession.

seanhunter 3y ago

In the course they use Python notebooks to make a chatbot that uses openAI's api. It's not just "how to make good prompts" (although they do have that in the first 5 mins or so).

thunky 3y ago
I think we agree: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35741552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35741552

wrycoder 3y ago

In fifty years, there will be a Ng’s School of Magic and Useful Incantations. How all that stuff works will have been forgotten by the human race.

wodenokoto 3y ago

I see it as the same engineering used in “social engineering”.

zamnos 3y ago
Which is to say, it's the original hack and possibly the most important branch? Not sure I agree with that, but it's not my claim.

noonething 3y ago

Yeah if anything, your a Wizard.