Ironically, AI prompt engineers might be replaced by AI prompting tools.
Researchers from Google’s DeepMind Unit recently submitted a paper to the ICLR revealing automated prompts are getting closer to solving harder tasks.
In a series of tests run by a program called ORPO, the researchers discovered their optimized prompts outperformed human-designed prompts (on GSM8K and Big-Bench Hard) by a significant margin, sometimes over 50%.
ORPO was tasked with solving reasoning tests and grade school math problems, but knowing how quickly things move, would it not be a stretch to imagine AI technologies will soon ask and answer their own complicated questions? Maybe then they’ll form their own relationships, cliques, and gossip?
Jokes aside, I think prompt engineering should be interpreted more as a skill set, not a fixed career path. I’ve a tough time believing the remit for any job (human or robot) is safely insulated from change.
Despite the breakthrough, when it came to teasing out errors, ORPO fell short. In the researchers words, the optimizer LLM “does not effectively utilize error cases… indicating that the error cases alone are not informative enough to grasp the cause of the wrong prediction.”
IT’s principal remit is about finding and fixing errors. But in the DEX industry, they have to do that and more: DEX workers are tasked with improving rapport and esteem with employees, alleviating tool fatigue, and instilling a sense of engagement and value. Prompt engineering is a small but important piece.
But the best people to cover prompt engineering tasks in DEX will need to understand both core DEX components and Generative AI.
For the former, this can include knowledge of:
• Software applications
• Network connectivity
• Device and hardware troubleshooting
• XLAs (Experience Level Agreements)
• IT Ticket Management
If you’re interested in pursuing prompt engineering in a DEX-specific team or role, rest easy, your job is safe. And if one day it isn't, remember that humans can pivot, adapt, and reinvent themselves. Technologies are programmed to work on specific tasks and commands, but you’re programmed to live!
