Artificial Intelligence

Generating Prompts

Key components of writing a good prompt include:

  • Be specific: A generic prompt such as "What restaurant should I eat in?" will not be as useful as asking it for a list of restaurants within 15 minutes of Messiah University.
  • Give the AI a persona: Tell it who it is supposed to "be" so that it can tailor its response. Example: Tell it to be a student in a university chemistry class. 
  • Tell the AI your audience: Your results will be different if your audience is a third grader or a graduate student.
  • Break down your prompt into steps.
  • Don't be afraid to use don't: You can tell the AI what you do or do not want it to include.
  • Tell the AI your expected result: Do you want a table, a graph, a sentence, a lesson plan, a paragraph? After you describe what you want it to do, make sure to tell it your expected format. Use words like, "Present this in the form of..." or  "Create a slide about..."
  • Build on previous prompts: if your initial prompt does not give you the desired results, clarify what you need. 
  • Don't be afraid to be direct: the AI is not a person, so you do not have to include niceties like "please" or "thank you." In fact, these extra words can use more computing power and energy! Instead of, "Please present a list of..." you can simply say, "Present a list of..."

You can also ask the AI tool for help generating a prompt. 

 

Video: Prompting AI

The 11 minute video below from Wharton Interactive's Faculty Director Ethan Mollick and Director of Pedagogy Lilach Mollick discusses how to effectively prompt AI as well as how to take the lead, weaving your own expertise into the interaction.

Why Can't I Find the Source that the AI Tool Gave Me?

Have you ever used Generative AI to find sources only to discover that those sources don't exist? While Generative AI can be helpful for brainstorming search terms or even which database you might search, it is not currently the best place to search for research sources. Here's why:

  • Generative AI does not have access to library databases where many of the scholarly articles are housed. You need a subscription to read those journal articles, and AI tools do not subscribe to them! 
  • Most Generative AI tools do not have access to the internet. This means that they can't search for the latest article or news. 
  • Generative AI tools generate content by predicting what comes next. They are not reading articles the way a human would and creating a bibliography. Instead, they are predicting that the word Smith might often come after the word Jane in an author's name. Someone with the first named Jane Smith might have written that article ChatGPT is showing you, but it also might be Jane Doe. The same holds true for article and journal titles.

If you need help finding sources, developing keywords, or using library resources, a liaison librarian is happy to help you! Please ask us!

How can you fact check AI?

It is important to understand the types of incorrect information that AI may produce. AI can:

  • give the wrong answer 
  • omit information by mistake
  • make up completely fake people, events, and articles
  • mix truth and fiction

Lateral reading is one way to check your AI results. Search for information about your topic in other sources, such as Google Scholar or a library database. Compare your results. A librarian can help you find sources. 

It is also important to have a basic understanding of the topic or subject you are asking the AI tool about. This may be why a professor in a foundational course (100 or 200 level) may restrict your use of AI on assignments. It is hard to evaluate the AI responses without that knowledge!