Now that you know how to access generative AI tools, the next step is to gain some familiarity with basic prompting. Prompting is the most common way to communicate with language-based generative AI tools. By entering in questions, statements, or requests, you can prompt the AI tool to help you in a wide variety of ways, from answering questions to generating creative content. For this assignment, you will complete two basic activities to build your prompting skills. Don't worry; even if you've never used a generative AI tool before, the below activities will demonstrate how easy it is to prompt an AI tool!

The first activity will get you started with a basic prompt; you will enter in a basic request and examine the output. The second activity will introduce the concept of prompt iteration, which allows you to adjust the AI's output.

Activity 1: Basic Prompting Practice - Idea Generation

For the first activity, we'll start simple. Idea generation is a common use for AI, and writing a clear, simple prompt to get ideas and kickstart your thinking is a great way to begin. This activity begins with a basic request for ideas and showcases AI's ability to produce written content on a variety of topics and in a variety of formats.

Procedure:

Navigate to the AI of your choice (we recommend using the basic, no-account version of ChatGPT for this course, though you can use other systems and login methods as well).
Enter text in the prompting field to prompt the AI. Ask the tool to provide you with some party planning ideas for a group of your choice. For example, you could ask it to "Generate a theme for a birthday party for a 10-year old" or "Suggest some fun activities for a summer beach party".
Experiment with several different types of parties or gatherings and evaluate the output. Which suggestions help further your thinking or give you new ideas?
Experiment with follow-up requests. If the output contains a particularly good idea, ask for more details on how to implement it, or ask it to write a party invitation based on a particular activity.

Activity 2: Prompt Iteration - Altering Output and Adjusting Style

The first activity demonstrated how you can use AI to generate ideas based on a specific request and add follow-up requests for additional output. Another important feature of AI to experiment with is its ability to iterate on a prompt and recreate its output in a different format. Sometimes, what you get back from your prompt is not quite what you were looking for. Instead of starting a new chat and writing a brand new prompt, you can also prompt the AI to re-generate its output in a different way.

For example, if the output is too long or too short, you can ask it to re-generate its response but reduce or lengthen the output. This allows you to continue building on your initial prompt. Additionally, as a language-generating system, AI can also provide the same content but in different writing styles and genres. For example, if it produces an email that is too formal for your purposes, you can ask it to produce the same email but in a more casual tone.

Procedure:

Start a new chat and begin with a simple generation request. For example, you could start with the previous activity's prompt and ask the AI to "generate a fun weekend activity" or have it write a basic business email or letter.
After reviewing the output, ask the AI to re-generate its last output but add specific additional details. For example: "Can you regenerate your last output but aim the activity toward young children?"
Repeat the above step with additional details and review how each added detail changes the output. What level of prompt specificity seems to generate the best results?
Next, to experiment with how AI can generate content in different styles, start a new chat and ask it to generate a piece of writing, such as a poem, joke, email, or document.
Ask the AI to regenerate the content in a different style. For example, you can ask it to regenerate a document in a lighter, more fun tone, or ask it to produce a poem about cats, and then ask it to regenerate the poem in memespeak. Experiment with different styles and outputs.

What's Next

Now that you've experimented with the basics of AI prompting and prompt iteration, we'll take some time to discuss AI more broadly and focus on some pitfalls that you may encounter while using it, and some methods for ensuring its safe and ethical use. Select the 'Next' button when you're ready to move on to the next module item.