Ethically Using Artificial Intelligence: Creating Effective AI Prompts

Understanding Prompts

Artificial intelligence is often only has good as the human interaction that drives it. This includes the prompts that we use to generate results. Prompts are the statement, command, or question that a user enters into an AI tool or program to generate the results. While short, simple prompts will generate results; the strongest and most useful results often come from specific and detailed prompts.

In addition, many AI tools charge credits per query or search. Poorly created prompts increase the likelihood that multiple queries will be needed to get the desired results. Run out of credits, real money has to be used. By using good prompts, you decrease the number of queries needed.

Creating Effective AI Prompts

Prompts can be a statement, command, or a question. The prompts you use have a direct impact on the results that you receive. Here's what makes a good prompt:

Be specific - Generic prompts create generic results. Make sure to specify what details you want the generated results to include. For example:

• "What are the top rated restaurants in Jonesboro, AR?" - This question prompt makes sure to include the location.
• "Write a folk song for children about a red wolf falling in love on campus." - This command prompt specifics what type of song, audience, and subject matter.
• "Create a recipe for a potluck. Do use chick peas and mushrooms. Don't use tomatoes." - This prompt makes sure to include do and don't.

Provide context - When appropriate, provide the background and setting. For example:

• "Act as if you are a new student at Arkansas State University. What do you do first when you get to campus?" - This prompt uses the act as if command to tell the tool to behave as a type of person, object, or process.
• "Explain libraries to me like I am 5 years old" - This prompt uses explain like to tell the tool the context of the output. This is good approach to breaking down hard to grasp concepts.

List how you want the results to be presented - If you don't specify what type of output you want your results in, the AI tool will be left to guess. For example:

• "Create a 100 point scoring rubric to grade Freshmen-level history papers on the Civil War." - This prompt specifies output (rubric), score, class level, discipline, and topic. 
• "A small child reading under a tree; as a photo; theme: sci-fi; mood: adventurous" - This statement prompt specifies the output (photo), theme, and mood.

Identify tone and audience - Another way to be specific and add context is to specify tone (funny, serious, silly) and audience. For example:

• "List funny library jokes for college freshmen."
• "Write a heartwarming love song for vampires."

Concise - Don't provide information that is not relevant to the output you want. Shorter, specific commands generally produce more relevant results. Additionally, you can often create a prompt that is made up of several short commands or statements. For example:

• "write song; tone: heartwarming; audience: vampires" is another way to say "Write a heartwarming love song for vampires."

Use examples - If you want the generated output to be similar to something that already exists, you can upload an example for the AI tool to mimic. Make sure you don't upload copyrighted works. For example:

• "Read my cover letter for a past job. [insert cover letter] Write an updated letter with the added skills: ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot."
   

Revisions - Were the results you received not quite right? No worries! You can make corrections and tweaks to your prompts to generate better results. In fact, it's perfectly fine to start with a general question or command and tweak the results as you go!