Notes: Google's Prompt Engineering Course

Overview

• The course is structured into four modules:
  1. Start Writing Prompts Like a Pro: Introduces frameworks for crafting prompts.
  2. Design Prompts for Everyday Work Tasks: Focus on prompts for daily tasks like emailing and summarizing.
  3. Using AI for Data Analysis and Presentations: Specific techniques for leveraging AI tools.
  4. Use AI as a Creative or Expert Partner: Advanced techniques and frameworks for creative tasks.

Module 1: Start Writing Prompts Like a Pro

• Prompting Fundamentals:
  • Process of providing specific instructions to achieve desired outcomes in tasks (text, images, video, etc.).
  • 5-step framework: Task, Context, References, Evaluate, Iterate.
  • Importance of persona and format for output.
• Iteration Methods:
  • Revisit the framework, separate prompts, try different phrasing, and introduce constraints.
  • Mnemonics: "Tiny crabs ride enormous iguanas" and "Rahen saves tragic idiots."
• Multimodal Prompting: Interact using different modalities (pictures, audio, video, code) while maintaining the prompting framework.

Module 2: Design Prompts for Everyday Work Tasks

• Use Cases:
  • Examples include writing emails, summarizing documents, and building a prompt library.
  • Emphasizes the importance of tone, word choice, and providing context or references.

Module 3: Using AI for Data Analysis and Presentations

• Data Analysis:
  • Caution about privacy policies when inputting data into AI models.
  • Examples include creating new columns in spreadsheets and analyzing trends.
• Presentation Building:
  • Prompts for creating effective presentations.

Module 4: Use AI as a Creative or Expert Partner

• Advanced Techniques:
  • Prompt Chaining: Series of interconnected prompts to add complexity.
  • Chain of Thought Prompting: Step-by-step reasoning explanation.
  • Tree of Thought Prompting: Exploring multiple reasoning paths simultaneously.
  • Meta Prompting: Using AI to help come up with a prompt.
• AI Agents:
  • Agent Sim: Simulates scenarios, such as conducting interviews or role-playing.
  • Agent X: Provides expert feedback on various topics.
  • Guidelines for creating AI agents with personas, context, conversation types, stop phrases, and feedback.

Key Takeaways

• Responsible use of AI with human-in-the-loop approach to mitigate issues like hallucinations and biases.
• The importance of providing detailed context and examples when crafting prompts.
• Using mnemonics can aid in remembering complex frameworks and processes.
• Combine various techniques and modalities for more effective AI interaction.

Final Notes

• Assessment included at the end to reinforce learning and retention.
• Encouragement to apply techniques and build a personal prompt library.