🌞 What is a Prompt?

Abstract

This chapter covers prompt basics.

🦜 Video lecture for this chapter - Link

A prompt is a request given to the chatbot in order to get the desired output. Here the request is given in natural language i.e. as text input. Here the text input can be a query asking for some information or an instruction asking the chatbot to do a task.

Chatbot generating output for the given prompt.

Here the task can be writing a poem, generating the summary of the given text, paraphrasing the given text, writing a Python program etc. The chatbot receives the prompt from the user, understands it and accordingly generates the desired output.

Some examples of query prompt asking for information are

🍿 Example - 1

Prompt

How many continents are there?

Output

There are seven continents on Earth, according to the most widely accepted model. They are:

- Asia
- Africa
- North America
- South America
- Antarctica
- Europe
- Australia

🍿 Example - 2

Prompt

Who is the founder of Microsoft?

Output

Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. They established the company on April 4, 1975,with the 
goal of developing and selling a BASIC programming language interpreter for the Altair 8800, an early personal 
computer. Bill Gates played a significant role in the leadership and growth of Microsoft, contributing 
to the company's success in the software industry.

🍿 Example - 3

Prompt

Expand MBBS.

Output

MBBS stands for "Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery." It is a professional  undergraduate degree awarded 
to students who have completed the necessary training in the field  of medicine and surgery. The term "MBBS" 
is commonly used in many countries, especially in the United Kingdom and countries that follow the British 
education system. The degree is equivalent to the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree awarded in some other 
countries.

Some of the examples of instruction prompts are

🍿 Example - 1

Prompt

Translate the following English text to Telugu: 'Hello, how are you?'”

Output

The English text "Hello, how are you?" can be translated to Telugu as:

"హలో, మీరు ఎలా ఉన్నారు?" (pronounced: "Halo, meeru ela unnaru?")

Explanation: Here the instruction given to the chatbot is text translation from English language to Telugu language. Telugu is one of the most spoken languages in India.

🍿 Example - 2

Prompt

Generate an interesting and unique title for an introduction video tutorial on artificial intelligence.

Output

"Unlocking the Future: A Journey into Artificial Intelligence - Your Ultimate Guide to AI Essentials!”

Explanation: Here the instruction given to the chatbot is generating a video title.

🍿 Example - 3

Prompt

Write a short and crispy poem of four lines about friendship.

Output

A hand to hold, a heart to see,
Through laughter bright and tears that flow,
A journey shared, a bond that's free,
This is the essence, my friend, of you and me.

Explanation: Here the instruction given to the chatbot is writing a poem about friendship.

🍿 Example - 4

Prompt

Generate a summary of this YouTube video about the “Akmmus AI” research lab. YouTube 
video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5XH-ZQMHkQ

Output

 Here is a summary of the YouTube video about the “Akmmus AI” research lab:

- Akmmus AI is an independent NLP-focused AI research lab from Trichy, India.
- The research interests of the lab are large language models and relevant topics.
- Akmmus AI is founded by Katikapalli Subramanyam Kalyan, an NLP researcher with six years of research 
experience.
- Kalyan has served on the program committees of ACL and ML4Health and has received citations from Stanford, 
MIT, and Harvard for his papers.

Explanation: Here the instruction given to the chatbot is to summarize the given content.

In this way, the user can write a prompt asking for some information or specifying instructions to do a specific task.

Note

The quality of the output generated by the chatbot heavily depends on the clarity and specificity of the prompt i.e., if the prompt is not clear and specific, the chatbot may not generate the desired output.

Let us understand this with a simple example.

Prompt

Write a poem.

The above prompt is not clear and specific as the prompt doesn’t specify about which the chatbot has to write the poem and details like the length of the poem etc.

Prompt

Write a poem about friendship.

The above prompt is clear as the prompt mentions which the poem has to be written. However, it is not specific because the prompt doesn’t include any details like the length of the poem etc.

Prompt

Write a crispy and short poem of four lines about friendship.

The above prompt is clear and specific as the prompt specifies the poem should be about friendship and should be crispy and short with four lines.