1. What is Conversational AI?

In our digital lives, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly important. Conversational AI is a technology that allows us to communicate in natural language, much like a chatbot. For example, ChatGPT and Copilot are common applications of conversational AI. They can understand our text input and generate appropriate responses, simulating human conversation. These AIs can be used in various scenarios, such as customer service, content creation, and code writing, helping us improve work efficiency and quality of life.

2. What is a Prompt?

A prompt is an instruction we give to a conversational AI to guide it in performing a specific task. It can be as simple as a single sentence or a detailed description, depending on the result we want. A well-designed prompt can help AI understand and fulfill our needs more accurately.

3. How to Design Simple and Clear Prompts?

Designing effective prompts is key to using conversational AI. Here are some simple and clear design principles:

Focus on the Objective

Use clear and concise language to make the AI understand your needs. Avoid complex and lengthy sentences to ensure the instructions are not too scattered.

For example, the following prompt is simple and clear, easier to understand than “I want a detailed article on how to protect the environment, including various methods and measures, and specific examples.”

Please generate an article about environmental protection.

Provide Context

When designing prompts, provide enough information and background to help the AI understand the context of your request. This helps the AI generate more relevant responses.

For example, the following prompt provides contextual background, helping the AI grasp the writing style and content better.

I am writing an article about home gardening tips. Please provide some practical advice.

Another example: this prompt provides a specific context, allowing the AI to offer a more relevant explanation.

Please explain the law of conservation of mass in a way that children can understand.

Specify the Output Format

Clearly state how you want the AI to respond to ensure the generated result meets your expectations. This can guide the AI to produce more precise results. Additionally, you can request bullet points or tabular output. Further, if you provide data, you can request statistical graphs.

For example, this prompt specifies the output format.

Write an article about renewable energy, focusing on solar and wind energy.

Bullet point output:

List three major types of renewable energy and the advantages of each type.

Tabular output:

Please list three types of renewable energy and their advantages in a table format.

Statistical graph output:

Please generate a bar chart showing the growth in the use of different renewable energies over the past five years. The data is as follows: Solar: 2019 - 1000 MW, 2020 - 1500 MW, 2021 - 2000 MW, 2022 - 2500 MW, 2023 - 3000 MW Wind: 2019 - 800 MW, 2020 - 1200 MW, 2021 - 1600 MW, 2022 - 2000 MW, 2023 - 2400 MW Hydro: 2019 - 1200 MW, 2020 - 1300 MW, 2021 - 1400 MW, 2022 - 1500 MW, 2023 - 1600 MW

4. Common Prompt Examples

Understanding some successful prompt examples can help in designing your own prompts. Here are some common examples:

Question-and-Answer Prompts:

What is quantum computing?

Please explain the basic concepts of artificial intelligence.

Content Generation Prompts:

Write an article about climate change.

Generate a blog post about sustainable development.

Translation Prompts:

Translate this text into Spanish: Hello, how are you?

Please translate the following English into Japanese: Artificial Intelligence is transforming the world.

Code Generation Prompts:

Please write a Python code to implement the quicksort algorithm.

Generate an SQL query to analyze sales data.

5. Summary of Key Points

The emergence of conversational AI provides us with powerful tools that can help us improve efficiency in various tasks. Designing effective prompts is key to leveraging these AI tools. Focusing on the objective, providing context, and specifying clear output formats are three important principles for designing excellent prompts. By understanding and applying these principles, we can better utilize conversational AI to solve real-world problems and create more value.

I hope this guide helps you understand and master the basics of conversational AI prompts and achieve the best results in practical applications.