AI Prompt Engineer is the talk of the town and an individual can earn up to $335,000 per year – without any degree in computer engineering or advanced coding skills. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Bard are powerful, but their power is best harnessed by people with expertise in how they work. “Kind of like anything in life,” quipped one aspirant for the position. Big companies are hiring people to make sense of LLMs, and get the most from AI technology. These jobs could be for prompt engineers with general experience, or for folks with more domain-specific skills, such as in the fields of finance, healthcare, or law.
However, a recent research paper from Stanford University, in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley, and research firm Samaya AI, highlights the importance of prompt engineering to enhance AI model performance. The study reveals that the length of prompts given to AI models significantly impacts their ability to execute commands accurately. Understanding this crucial information can lead to more impactful interactions with AI, especially in the finance industry, where major financial institutions hire AI researchers with salaries upwards of $300k to explore the capabilities of AI bots.
The challenge of prompt length on AI models
The research points out that language models, primarily based on Transformers, struggle with long sequences, leading to difficulties in processing lengthy prompts. The ‘context window’ of a language model, which considers words surrounding a key term when generating responses, is crucial in this context. The study identifies a ‘distinctive U curve’ in the accuracy of language models, where information closer to the middle of a prompt tends to be disregarded, impacting the model’s performance. The implication is that while information at the start and end of prompts is still useful, crucial data in the middle may be overlooked.
Overcoming the limitations of transformers
The poor scaling of Transformers to long sequences poses a challenge to prompt engineering. Increasing the context window size, which Meta scientists had explored through Position Interpolation, may seem like a solution. However, the Stanford study reveals that when the full prompt exceeds the window’s capacity, the results show a “nearly superimposed” curve, indicating limited improvement in model performance.
Financial institutions harnessing AI research
Beyond academic circles, leading financial institutions are actively investing in AI research to explore the capabilities of AI bots in their operations. Bloomberg is currently developing BloombergGPT and hiring multiple senior AI researchers with salaries surpassing $300k. JPMorgan is also significantly increasing its hiring of AI-focused staff for both production and research roles, particularly emphasizing the development its financial advice bot, IndexGPT. To succeed in these roles, candidates must grasp the importance of prompt engineering and its impact on AI model performance.
The role of AI prompt engineers in finance
Prompt engineering holds immense potential in the finance industry, where AI bots can significantly impact workflows, risk management, and customer service. By optimizing prompt structures, financial institutions can enhance AI bots’ abilities to accurately analyze and process data, leading to more informed decision-making and better customer experiences.
Utilizing subheadings for impactful prompt engineering
1. Understanding the impact of prompt length: The Stanford study sheds light on how prompts affect AI model performance, urging prompt engineers to strike a balance between relevant information and prompt brevity.
2. The challenge of transformers and the context window: The limitations of Transformers in handling long sequences pose significant challenges for prompt engineering, making it crucial to optimize the context window size for effective AI interactions.
3. The U-Curve phenomenon: The research reveals the U-curve pattern of accuracy in language models, emphasizing the need to position critical information away from the middle of prompts to enhance AI performance.
4. Overcoming the transformer dilemma: While increasing the context window size appears promising, the study highlights the potential limitations when prompts exceed the window’s capacity, necessitating innovative approaches to prompt engineering.
5. AI research in the finance industry: Financial institutions are embracing AI research and hiring senior AI researchers with competitive salaries to explore AI bot capabilities, especially in improving financial advice and risk management.
6. Unlocking AI’s potential: By embracing impactful prompt engineering, the finance industry can leverage AI bots to streamline workflows, optimize risk assessment, and enhance customer service, contributing to greater efficiency and competitiveness.
Prompt engineering is a pivotal aspect of AI interactions, significantly impacting language models’ performance. As financial institutions continue to invest in AI research, optimizing prompt structures becomes ever more crucial in unlocking the full potential of AI bots. Professionals can harness AI technology to transform the finance industry and drive greater success in a rapidly evolving digital landscape by understanding the challenges and opportunities in prompt engineering.
Words of Caution
Thinking of shifting courses in the middle of your degree? Someone cautioned too early to know if this is a job with staying power and long-term potential. Remember not too long ago when everyone in Silicon Valley was jumping ship from their “traditional” tech jobs to get into crypto, NFTs, Web 3.0, and the Metaverse? A lot of those jobs didn’t pan out and prompt engineering jobs could end up the same way. AI is getting smarter with tweaks from AI developers and soon, will be able to prompt itself in the future, eliminating the need for much prompting from humans. AutoGPT is already heading in that direction.
Over time, prompt engineering may lose its novelty, making it less likely that we need “experts” in this area. It’s also entirely possible that the whole AI industry will produce rogues — as with all things competitive and with high stakes — and implode upon itself. So, be careful with your life choices.
