AI: Artificial Intelligence Resources

“Prompt engineering” refers to the process of crafting a prompt that will give you the results you desire as efficiently as possible.  Chatbots, in particular, are getting better at reading “imperfect” prompts, but it still pays dividends to follow a few principles when you’re crafting a prompt.

1. Be clear about who you are and what “level” of answer you’re looking for.  If you say you are doing PhD-level work in the topic you’re researching, you’ll get a different set of results than if you say you’re an undergraduate, or if you don’t specify anything.
2. Be clear about your research topic.  It won’t guess what you really want.
3. Specify the type of results you’re looking for.  If you specifically want peer-reviewd academic sources, say so!
4. However, don’t necessarily specify the number of results.  If you ask for at least twenty results, you’ll probably get at least twenty…but if the chatbot can only find five real ones, it’ll make up the other fifteen.
5. Always invite the chatbot to ask follow-up questions.

Here are a couple of examples::

1. I am an undergraduate history major at the University of North Dakota, looking for books, articles, and primary sources on the development of rural public schooling in the American midwest.  Can you suggest some academic readings, particularly theses, dissertations, and peer-reviewed articles?  If you need any clarifications from me, let me know.
2. My parents have asked me to help find some native flowers, vegetables, and whatnot to plant in their garden.  They’re big-time gardeners but not biologists.  Can you suggest some readings, either websites or entry-level articles, that could get them started?  If you need more information, please ask, but I don’t know as much about plants as they do.

Once you get the results, absolutely ask for clarifications, to expand on certain areas, and so on.

Some chatbots, particularly ChatGPT, will automatically remember information from previous chats, particularly if you say it several times.  (You can delete this information, however, or start an “incognito” chat.)  If you want it to start with a blank slate, you can say something like “ignore any information from previous chats.”

If you’re not sure how to write a prompt, especially for more intense tools like Research Mode, you can always ask the chatbot for help!  Start a new chat, and say something like:

I’m starting doing research in how the American Civil War began but I don’t know how to write a good prompt for Research Mode.  Can you help me write one?  I could use some help really expressing my research question in a way that’s helpful.