A prompt is a clear and precise instruction that tells artificial intelligence (AI) what you want from it. The quality of your prompts has a major impact on how helpful the AI answers are.
The quality of our models' answers depends heavily on your input. Writing good prompts requires following these steps, but also practice.
Think carefully about what you expect from the AI. Make sure you formulate your goal precisely and concisely.
Good:
"Write me a short summary of Goethe's novel 'Faust' in no more than 100 words."
Less good:
"Tell me something about 'Faust'."
It is helpful to clearly tell the AI from which perspective it should answer. This influences the tone and wording.
Example:
"You are a history teacher. Explain the causes of World War II briefly and clearly."
The more relevant context you provide, such as background information, data, tables, or concrete examples, the better and more accurate the AI's answer will be.
Example:
"Based on these sales figures (table), create a short analysis of which products sell best and why."
Describe exactly what form you want your answer to take:
Example:
"Create a list of 5 important facts about renewable energy."
AI can use different styles and language levels. Clearly specify which style or level you want:
Example:
"Explain the theory of relativity simply enough for 8th-grade students to understand."
If you are not sure whether your prompt is clear enough, add:
Example:
"If important information is missing, feel free to ask follow-up questions."
Here is a brief overview of what you should avoid:
Follow these steps and you will quickly get better answers from your AI!
