pompts

A prompt is an input given to an artificial intelligence model to elicit a response. In natural language processing, prompts can be questions, tasks, or sequences of instructions that guide the model's output. The term is most common in relation to large language models but applies to other generative systems as well. The intended term is prompts; "pompts" is a common misspelling.

Prompts vary in form. Zero-shot prompts ask the model to perform a task with no examples; few-shot prompts provide one or more exemplars and their correct outputs; instruction prompts explicitly tell the model what to do; and conversational prompts structure dialogue to simulate an interaction. Some prompts use a system or role instruction to set a persona or constraints.

Prompt engineering is the practice of designing prompts to improve usefulness, accuracy, and safety. This includes specifying the desired format and length, using clear and unambiguous instructions, including examples, setting constraints on tone or style, and arranging the prompt to reduce the chance of misinterpretation. Iterative testing is common.

Challenges include sensitivity to wording, prompt leakage or injection, model bias, and variability in output. Small changes in wording can change results, and models may produce plausible but incorrect information. Techniques such as chaining steps, decomposing tasks, and including evaluation prompts help address these issues.

Applications span content creation, coding assistance, data extraction, translation, summarization, and reasoning tasks. Prompts can be combined with tools such as web access or code execution to expand capabilities.

The concept of prompting emerged with the rise of interactive language models in the 2020s. As models grew more capable, prompt design evolved into a distinct discipline within AI development, emphasizing clarity, structure, and user intent.