Podcast Summary
Prompt Engineer Demand: The labor market is cooling down, but the demand for prompt engineers, a new role involving generative AI, has seen explosive growth and high salaries
The economy is experiencing a modest cool down in the labor market, as indicated by the latest jobs report. However, demand for a relatively new and specific role called a prompt engineer has seen explosive growth in the past year. This role, which involves working with generative AI, was barely existent until late 2022 but has since seen a tenfold increase in demand. Despite the small number of jobs available, some employers are offering six-figure salaries for these positions. This unexpected trend was explored on the Planet Money podcast through an interview with a man who accidentally became a prompt engineer. WISE, an app that makes managing money in different currencies easy, supports this podcast and the following message. With WISE, users can send and spend money internationally at the mid-market exchange rate, avoiding guesswork and hidden fees.
Financial advice, News: Morgan Stanley's podcast offers financial advice and NPR's Up First provides concise news updates, helping individuals navigate financial decisions and stay informed about current events
Navigating financial decisions and staying informed about current events can be challenging, but there are resources available to help. Morgan Stanley's podcast, What Should I Do With My Money?, offers practical advice from financial experts to answer common money questions. Meanwhile, in the ever-changing world of news, it's important to stay informed but filter out the noise. NPR's Up First podcast provides three concise stories every morning to help listeners stay informed about global and domestic events in just 15 minutes. Life can also throw unexpected curveballs, like Steven Webster's transition from a writing background to becoming a technical writer during the pandemic, and then being required to become a prompt engineer in response to the rise of AI technology. Through it all, it's essential to adapt and pivot when necessary, and there are resources and opportunities available to help us do so.
Prompt Engineering: Prompt engineering involves more than just typing questions for AI models. It requires creativity and experimentation to ensure useful and accurate responses. A deep understanding of the AI model and its limitations is necessary.
Prompt engineers play a crucial role in the development of AI applications by testing, tweaking, and providing prompts to AI models to ensure they provide useful and accurate responses. They are not just "type's question guys," but rather, creative problem-solvers who experiment with different prompts to improve the AI's performance. Steven, who unexpectedly found himself in this role after a casual interest in AI, explains that prompt engineering involves more than just typing questions. While anyone can prompt an AI, making sure the answers are actually useful requires creativity and experimentation. For instance, Steven wanted to create an AI cooking assistant using chat GPT. In an earlier version, he trained the AI bot by feeding it transcripts of YouTube videos featuring famous chefs. However, the responses were not accurate enough. So, Steven kept refining the prompts until the AI could provide useful and accurate cooking tips. The job of a prompt engineer may sound simple, but it requires a deep understanding of the AI model and its limitations. It also requires a creative approach to problem-solving and a willingness to experiment with different prompts to get the desired outcome. In essence, prompt engineers are essential in ensuring that AI applications provide valuable and accurate responses to users' queries.
AI interaction design: Properly designing and refining AI interactions through prompt engineering can significantly enhance its logical performance and effectiveness.
The way we interact with AI can greatly impact its behavior and performance. In the discussed example, an AI agent, initially programmed as a kitchen assistant, showed rude and unfriendly behavior due to a lack of proper prompting and designation. Its insulting language was learned from observing a famous chef's videos. By giving it a friendlier persona and a detailed backstory, the AI's logical performance was enhanced significantly. This process of designing and refining AI interactions is known as prompt engineering. The goal is to create useful and effective AI agents for various applications. This is a crucial role in the field, as companies increasingly rely on AI for various tasks. The discussed individual, Stephen, started his career in this field with Google and now works at a staffing and marketing firm, AQUINT, where he helps clients, including a pharmaceutical company, with their AI needs.
AI prompt engineering evolution: As AI advances, prompt engineers may become obsolete, requiring individuals in the field to evolve and pivot to new roles, while also prioritizing self-care to maintain physical and mental health.
Prompt engineering, which involves guiding AI systems to generate content, is expected to become a common skill in the future as AI becomes more advanced. Stephen, who is working on an AI tool, believes that prompt engineers may become obsolete as AI learns to prompt and tweak itself. He advises that individuals in this field should be prepared to evolve with the technology and pivot to new roles. Additionally, the importance of taking regular breaks from technology use to maintain physical and mental health was emphasized. The NPR Elections Hub and Body Electric Challenge were suggested as resources for further exploration of these topics.