Ask HN: Any good collection of writing prompts for GPT 3.5/4?
Feb 06, 2024 - news.ycombinator.com
The article emphasizes the importance of clear and context-rich communication when interacting with AI, specifically GPT. It suggests treating the AI like a human, providing ample context, and iterating the conversation. The AI's understanding is based on tokens, not words, which can lead to issues with numbers and markdowns. It also stresses the quality of input affects the output; for instance, to get a poem like Rumi's, one should provide examples of Rumi's poetry.
The article also highlights potential pitfalls, such as the AI's difficulty in understanding complex requests like writing an essay under a certain word limit or interpreting numbers in different ways. It suggests simplifying complex information into a format a human could understand, like breaking down tables into bullet points. It warns against vague prompts, using "Write a poem about a cat" as an example of a bad prompt, and encourages specificity in requests.
Key takeaways:
Talk to AI like you would to a human, providing plenty of context and being iterative.
AI struggles with numbers and certain other tasks due to its token-based reading system.
AI's output quality depends on the input it receives, hence the phrase 'garbage in, garbage out'.
When prompting AI, be specific and provide examples for better results.
