Prompting: It’s a Real Skill

Hey Guys,

Welcome to the 30th edition of: "Ease into AI & No Code" with Nix

Flip, what an interesting week it's been, albeit disjointed, as we had election day here in SA.

The universe is sending us a message (wink wink)! How about we shut down those laptops and grab some coffee/tea?

?I built my first-ever MVP with the 100 days of school (with Max H. & Harold D. )

??Link to join next MVP Cohort

Also, this is what I ended up building myself: NoCode Central (All Things NoCode, All in One Place)

One of my biggest takeaways here is this: AI and Nocode can and are being used for good, as I met the most gentle, yet creative humans in their most recent cohort.

?Anyhow, before I get chatting away, let me give you the chance just to skim-read the TLDR section ?? to see if you still want to hang around.

?TLDR Nuggets

?-Prompting: It’s a Real Skill

- Free GPT Framework To help guide you as you prompt

- Where to Learn AI: with the The Rundown AI Uni Rowan Cheung

Questioning Your AI Outputs

I can only talk you through my daily interactions with all of my AI colleagues, and that's the plan for this week.

How its uber critical to question their output, as they always {since they have been programmed} give you an answer, though that does not mean it's correct?

Point in case of Google's AI-powered search engine where it offered users some crazy advice like adding glue to their pizza ??

Link to full article here

So where does that leave us? With the must-use option to make use of both discernment and critical thinking.

Do not just accept that first initial output as final, but rather iterate and refine it, to make sure it's factual and/or unbiased, etc.

?Don't be afraid to second guess it, as like humans, we get muddled up and can, like our machine helpers, be prone to simply making stuff up, or more sensationally known as hallucinating. ??

?That's why I keep recommending, what I feel is one of the best courses I have ever done is with Becki Saltzman

?? https://bit.ly/3I188fh?

A Personal Story on User Error

?I want to tell you about a personal story that happened to me this week, as I feel like it contributes into what we are talking about here.

The short story is it turned out to be a "user error" i.e. ME.???

That I feel sums up why we feel AI is at times, limited or overhyped.

When you work from your own restricted knowledge base, you can't get the full functionality!

So start with templates as that's how we learn since we are newbies to all things AI and Nocode.

Before Nocode, I built with Canva and yes, I used templates.

After my confidence grew, I built sites with Notion (also a lovely no-code tool to start playing with).

Then I decided to build my first chatbot with Poe and yes, I enlisted the help of my AI's to guide me, as I had no idea what explicit instructions to provide.

I was no user expert, and this is where our AIs can help us.

Like the part in "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" option, "Phone a Friend" and in our case, ask our AI helpers!

?Don't be ashamed to ask your AI what you feel may be a stupid question.

That's how we get more information, by asking questions.

Whether that be in a business webinar or in a social setting, you ask questions to get to know the situation and/or people better.?

I saw that with my build this week.

My limitations were me, as I clicked through the interface trying to adjust my images or sync my data. {don't get me started, hahahahahaha}

Like our AIs, this was not my no-code platform's fault; it was a user error.

?So, here are My Top Prompting Tips?

?1. If you want to produce interesting GenAI anything, then Be interested

(I mean that read AI blogs | check out YouTube channels and join communities to see what others are doing)

?2. Build your first AI chatbot with Chipp (it will help you get better at prompting)

?3. If you have ChatGPT, take a pic of a picture you adore and ask it to describe the scene as though you were visually impaired and in vivid detail

?4. Start with templates in Microsoft Designer and copy-paste a scene you love and amend where necessary

?5. ChatGPT (operative word here) Chat, and do just that { chat with your AI, and when it delivers an output that does not resonate with you, say "This is not how I usually talk, please try again" as an example

?6. Use the GPT framework above as "automates your prompt" and is useful for a beginner

?7. Remind your AI, like you would an Intern, "please double-check your work!"

?8. In the beginning in my opinion you won't be saving time, as many influencers promise, you will be investing time rather, into understanding how to work with your AIs from chatting with PDFs to building internal forms at work. This may take you hours, weeks or months, don't compare, rather make sure you are confident with the tools you are working with as yes, eventually they do save you that promised time.

?9. Explore Multiple AI Platforms: Don't rely solely on ChatGPT. Experiment with other AI platforms like Claude, Gemini, and Bard to gain different perspectives and capabilities.

?10. AI is just getting faster and faster, so to avoid producing SLOP ask it to “Wait until you give it further instructions” and also to slow down. {Give it examples of what you want}

?Prompting Tips?continued...

Give context to your co-worker Claude (e.g. "This is for a response to an annoyed client whose online order we have messed up twice").

Like you are aware of the tone and voice you use with your lover versus someone you don't like, ask yourself what tone you would like (i.e. formal or conversational etc.).

?I also have other frameworks I use when working with my AIs like the RIPE framework from Chipp

Scott Meyer 's Prompt Guide is invaluable!

?Then there is the PREP framework from 100 school

Anthropic 's #Claude also has its own Prompt Library too Find it here

Check out sites like #Microsoft Designer as this will help you get started with prompting Gen AI art.

They have a section of Prompt Templates that will really help you to become more expressive.

?Check it out here: https://designer.microsoft.com/

I realize there is a lot here.

So, give yourself TIME.

Try to do just one of the above, and you will see a huge output improvement.

SMILE as you are still in the minority user adoption (be proud of that).

?

Until next week, let's keep ourselves open to endless curiosity.?

Blessings always,

Nix