3 ms·

I'll call it "AI" when prompt engineering ceases to be a thing.

lolinder 3y ago
I hate it as much as the next person when people make unwarranted comparisons between AI and humans, but... there are multiple fields dedicated to studying effective human communication, with research into which writing techniques are most effective for pedagogy, technical communication, legal communication, and so on. Even if we achieved full smarter-than-human AGI, I don't expect prompt engineering to go away. The real problem is that we insisted on giving a discipline that is far more art than science the title "engineering".
- wrs 3y ago
  Yes, isn’t the whole “alignment” fear basically that if we had smarter than human AGI, we would need smarter than human prompt engineering?
  - sainez 3y ago
    Alignment refers to the process of aligning AI with human values. I don't see why a superhuman AI would require different prompting than is in use today.
    - MacsHeadroom 3y ago
      The idea is that keeping a superhuman AI aligned would require superhuman prompting. This is the whole premise of OpenAI's SuperAlignment research and recent publication.
- intrasight 3y ago
  Fine. I'll call it "AI" when call our communications with it "rhetoric" ;)
antasvara 3y ago
Humans are "intelligent," yet we often have to re-explain ourselves when asked semi-complex questions.
- intrasight 3y ago
  You wouldn't say you're "prompt engineering" when communicating with your spouse or boss.
  - sainez 3y ago
    But you would say you used "social engineering" to manipulate an organization: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(security) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(security)
  - antasvara 3y ago
    That's largely a difference of terminology. Prompt engineering is just a more technical, all-encompassing term covering colloquial language like "can you rephrase the question" or "I'm not understanding, can you explain that in a different way?" I interpreted the original comment to mean "I won't consider ChatGPT an artificial intelligence until we don't need to prompt engineer." If that was the intended meaning, I just wanted to highlight that we do "prompt engineer" humans while also considering them "intelligent."
akira2501 3y ago
How could it be "a thing?" The models aren't well understood or published in most cases, the data used to create the model is unknown, and the system returns a single result instead of several results with tagged probabilities. I don't know what "prompt engineers" think they're "engineering." There's nothing of the sort remotely happening here. This is just random uninformed actions being tested against a weak fitness function. The results are effectively meaningless in any broader context.

I hate it as much as the next person when people make unwarranted comparisons between AI and humans, but... there are multiple fields dedicated to studying effective human communication, with research into which writing techniques are most effective for pedagogy, technical communication, legal communication, and so on. Even if we achieved full smarter-than-human AGI, I don't expect prompt engineering to go away. The real problem is that we insisted on giving a discipline that is far more art than science the title "engineering".

wrs 3y ago
Yes, isn’t the whole “alignment” fear basically that if we had smarter than human AGI, we would need smarter than human prompt engineering?
- sainez 3y ago
  Alignment refers to the process of aligning AI with human values. I don't see why a superhuman AI would require different prompting than is in use today.
  - MacsHeadroom 3y ago
    The idea is that keeping a superhuman AI aligned would require superhuman prompting. This is the whole premise of OpenAI's SuperAlignment research and recent publication.
intrasight 3y ago
Fine. I'll call it "AI" when call our communications with it "rhetoric" ;)

antasvara 3y ago

Humans are "intelligent," yet we often have to re-explain ourselves when asked semi-complex questions.

intrasight 3y ago
You wouldn't say you're "prompt engineering" when communicating with your spouse or boss.
- sainez 3y ago
  But you would say you used "social engineering" to manipulate an organization: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(security) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(security)
- antasvara 3y ago
  That's largely a difference of terminology. Prompt engineering is just a more technical, all-encompassing term covering colloquial language like "can you rephrase the question" or "I'm not understanding, can you explain that in a different way?" I interpreted the original comment to mean "I won't consider ChatGPT an artificial intelligence until we don't need to prompt engineer." If that was the intended meaning, I just wanted to highlight that we do "prompt engineer" humans while also considering them "intelligent."

akira2501 3y ago

How could it be "a thing?" The models aren't well understood or published in most cases, the data used to create the model is unknown, and the system returns a single result instead of several results with tagged probabilities. I don't know what "prompt engineers" think they're "engineering." There's nothing of the sort remotely happening here. This is just random uninformed actions being tested against a weak fitness function. The results are effectively meaningless in any broader context.