Why Create a Framework for AI Chat Prompts?
In my recent video, I suggested creating a framework for AI Chats.
As a software engineer with over 40 years of experience, let me explain why you need this.
A computer..is..stupid. Always has been, probably always will be.
Maybe someday, machines will learn reasoning. But as of right now, they can't.
What they can do is, follow a recipe called an algorithm and process data so that they look like they're reasoning.
So, why do you care about this? Because if you tell them to do something, they will try to do it. Worse, as Yoda says...
DO... THERE IS NO TRY.
So if you give it terrible instructions, it will follow them. If you ask it where is Paris? It will guess you might have meant France, but there are many cities named Paris.
If you give it a vague request, it may:
- do it wrong
- appear to do it right with nonsense information (called hallucinations)
- or get lucky
When you use the article generator, you can enter two things. A title and additional information. Here's where a framework can really help.
You can ask an AI to give you an outline an further information like this:
You are an affiliate marketing WordPress blogger and an SEO expert.I need help guiding a content writer to write a blog post with the title "Why You Should Refresh Your Affiliate Marketing Blog Posts" I need a detailed outline with 3-4 sections and 3-5 bullet points per section that I can use to guide a content writer. Also provide any overview information and guidance for the writer.
I could do better, but let's look at this. Remember the GOAL Plus framework from my video?
Besides a random title, I've asked the AI to give me:
- help guiding a content writer to write a blog post ( Goal)
- a detailed outline with 3-4 sections and 3-5 bullet points per section plus overview information (Output)
- for a content writer (Audience; yes, a computer program CAN be an audience!)
- For a content writer (Audience)
- with 3-4 sections and 3-5 bullet points per section (Length; OK I probably could and should be better but it worked)
Why do this??
Well if you ask the content writer to generate an outline, you may look at it and say "I want to add a section". Doesn't work. If you try to add a section, the content writer is stuck on the number of words based on the number of sections you originally chose! So doing this you get to see the outline and can submit it in the additional information section, and it will follow it. Because each section is only 250 words, it may lose some of your details. So I wouldn't have more than 5 bullet points in a section, and maybe 5 is too many.
Also, giving it some overview information guides it to what you really mean by those 75 characters in the title section.
Finally, Chatty will do some research for you.
I would add one thing that I didn't include in the video, or talk about up until now.
WHAT IF YOU GOT IT COMPLETELY WRONG?? Here's a way to get around that.
At the end of any prompt where you are doing something more than a factual search (and we are doing more than that), include a sentence like this:
"Do you have any questions or need clarification before you start?"
It may come back with questions that shows this was a little off. Or you didn't understand the problem. Or it didn't.
You are free to answer the questions then ask it again.
This will give you much better content then just rolling the dice on 75 characters!
Recent Comments
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We have so many people publishing about using AI. I have tried several different ideas. Now I, too, have a bit of a framework to work in.
I tell the AI who I am and what I need from it. Then provide the main thought to include with some relevant information to work with. I am reducing it to three main points.
With this smaller guide, I can usually get what I want without having the rewrites. It just goes faster for me.
Thanks for sharing your suggestions.
Sami
Tell me about it! AI repeatedly fails me on a daily basis, whether that's Perplexity (for deep web research), Claude (for writing content and creating tables), ChatGPT (for image creation and SEO content tweaks) - they're all infuriating due to not following simple instructions and fabricating info (Claude's the absolute worst for it lol).
But as you say, adding that extra sentence CAN help. Whenever Perplexity and ChatGPT have done the required job, I always ask questions like: "are you 100% certain this is accurate?", "what key information is missing from this summary/article?", "how can this content be made even more valuable to the reader?" etc, because it really gets their thought processes ticking, potentially leading to better outputs.
As for Claude, you're banging your head against a brick wall 4 hours later!
This. I’ve now made it a habit on really important things to ask it the questions in your second paragraph. This has allowed me to save the day when things were really going off of the rails.
Cheers,
Darlene
Great!
The more questions and enhanced outputs, the more thorough and creative, both you and your AI can get ;)
The only issue is that AI forgets everything the next day LOL (unless it's ChatGPT with its newish 'memory save' feature).
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This is a very valuable content. I knew the importance of creating a template or framework as you call it, but I never thought about many crucial elements you have shared here in this article. Thank you very much!
John