Episode 1: The Spark – Taming the Magic of Language Models
Join us on a journey back to the dawn of language models. We explore how early models paved the way for revolutionary technologies like GPT, and introduce the basics of prompt engineering – the art and science of communicating effectively with these powerful AI tools. Understand how we got here and why prompt engineering is the key to unlocking the full potential of LLMs.
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The "Magic" of LLMs and the Birth of Prompt Engineering:
The authors describe LLMs as a powerful engine that promises a "new age of coding" and other applications.
A pivotal moment for one of the authors in early 2023 highlighted the potential of LLMs (specifically Copilot in Rust) not just for completing code but for effectively teaching a new language through interaction. This illustrates the interactive and assistive nature of these models.
Core Concept: "At their core, LLMs are capable of one thing—completing text. The input into the model is called the prompt—it is a document, or block of text, that we expect the model to complete. Prompt engineering, then, in its simplest form, is the practice of crafting the prompt so that its completion contains the information required to address the problem at hand." (Page 10) This is the foundational definition of prompt engineering.