Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT (Coursera)

Offered by Vanderbilt University,
Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT (Coursera)

ChatGPT and other large language models are going to be more important in your life and business than your smartphone, if you use them right. ChatGPT can tutor your child in math, generate a meal plan and recipes, write software applications for your business, help you improve your personal cybersecurity, and that is just in the first hour that you use it. This course will teach you how to be an expert user of these generative AI tools. The course will show amazing examples of how you can tap into these generative AI tools' emergent intelligence and reasoning, how you can use them to be more productive day to day, and give you insight into how they work.

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Large language models respond to instructions and questions posed by users in natural language statements, known as “prompts”. Although large language models will disrupt many fields, most users lack the skills to write effective prompts. Expert users, who understand how to write good prompts, are orders of magnitude more productive and can unlock significantly more creative uses for these tools.
This course introduces students to the patterns and approaches for writing effective prompts for large language models. Anyone can take the course and the only required knowledge is basic computer usage skills, such as using a browser and accessing ChatGPT. Students will start with basic prompts and build towards writing sophisticated prompts to solve problems in any domain. By the end of the course, students will have strong prompt engineering skills and be capable of using large language models for a wide range of tasks in their job, business, personal life, and education, such as writing, summarization, game play, planning, simulation, and programming.

What You Will Learn

  • How to apply prompt engineering to effectively work with large language models, like ChatGPT
  • How to use prompt patterns to tap into powerful capabilities within large language models
  • How to create complex prompt-based applications for your life, business, or education

Syllabus

WEEK 1: Course Introduction
WEEK 2: Introduction to Prompts
WEEK 3: Prompt Patterns I
WEEK 4: Few-Shot Examples
WEEK 5: Prompt Patterns II
WEEK 6: Prompt Patterns III

Go to Class
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