Definitions
Prompt engineering is a new discipline for developing and optimizing prompts to efficiently use language models (LMs) for a wide variety of applications and research topics (“Prompt Engineering Guide”).
As librarians working with emerging technology (ex. tech in the Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab), we differentiate between making and making use of. For example, making a 3D printer or making a 3D model are different from printing an existing model to make use of a 3D printer. Similarly librarians and teachers don't usually make AI tools, but we and our students might make use of them. We leave programming and training machine learning models to computer scientists but it's important to know a little about what's under the hood before taking off with it. Artificial intelligence literacy is building skills to responsibly and confidently make use of artificial intelligence.
Write a prompt to get output from an AI generator. Prompt engineering is the term that describes the strategies for writing prompts. You can learn to write great prompts for both text and images.
AI tools for text generation are proliferating. OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, Google Bard, Bing Chat, and others are emerging quickly. Recommended search terms to find these tools are:
These authors have excellent advice for constructing effective prompts.
Use specialty AI tools to support and further your research. Below are three we use. But more come out all the time. Follow Andy Stapleton's YouTube channel to learn about new features and tools.
Currently, content made by text and image generators are often, but not always, treated as personal communications by many citation styles. As this is an evolving area of writing consider searching for phrases such as "citing generative AI in STYLE", replacing the word style with your citation style name such as APA, MLA, Chicago 17th, etc.
Our copyright librarian, Gwen Sibley, has delivered several presentations on issues of copyright and works generated by or with AI. We have a recording of a recent talk she gave on the subject. If you'd like a presentation for your class write to her at grsibley@ksu.edu
AI ethics and bias are important topics for anyone who works with or uses artificial intelligence systems. In this section, you will find resources that can help you learn more about these issues and how to address them in your projects. You will also find links to online courses, tools, and organizations that are dedicated to promoting ethical and fair AI practices.