Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT

How are LLMs segregated for ChatGPT :

1. Base LLM : Predicts next word based on text training data.
2. Instruction Tuned LLM : Tries to follow instructions. Uses RLHF - Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback.

Guidelines

2 things to keep in mind :

1. Write clear and specific instruction
2. Give the model time to "think"

Initial setup :

import openai
import os

from dotenv import load_dotenv, find_dotenv
_ = load_dotenv(find_dotenv())

openai.api_key  = os.getenv('OPENAI_API_KEY')

Helper function :

def get_completion(prompt, model="gpt-3.5-turbo"):
    messages = [{"role": "user", "content": prompt}]
    response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
        model=model,
        messages=messages,
        temperature=0, # this is the degree of randomness of the model's output
    )
    return response.choices[0].message["content"]

There are several tactics to utilize that will be mentioned in the sections below.

Guideline 1, Tactic 1 : Use delimiters to clearly indicate distinct parts of the input

Example :

text = f"""
You should express what you want a model to do by \ 
providing instructions that are as clear and \ 
specific as you can possibly make them. \ 
This will guide the model towards the desired output, \ 
and reduce the chances of receiving irrelevant \ 
or incorrect responses. Don't confuse writing a \ 
clear prompt with writing a short prompt. \ 
In many cases, longer prompts provide more clarity \ 
and context for the model, which can lead to \ 
more detailed and relevant outputs.
"""
prompt = f"""
Summarize the text delimited by triple backticks \ 
into a single sentence.
```{text}```
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

This can be used to prevent Prompt Injection.

Guideline 1, Tactic 2 : Ask for a structured output

Example :

prompt = f"""
Generate a list of three made-up book titles along \ 
with their authors and genres. 
Provide them in JSON format with the following keys: 
book_id, title, author, genre.
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Guideline 1, Tactic 3 : Ask the model to check whether coditions are satisfied

Example :

text_1 = f"""
Making a cup of tea is easy! First, you need to get some \ 
water boiling. While that's happening, \ 
grab a cup and put a tea bag in it. Once the water is \ 
hot enough, just pour it over the tea bag. \ 
Let it sit for a bit so the tea can steep. After a \ 
few minutes, take out the tea bag. If you \ 
like, you can add some sugar or milk to taste. \ 
And that's it! You've got yourself a delicious \ 
cup of tea to enjoy.
"""
prompt = f"""
You will be provided with text delimited by triple quotes. 
If it contains a sequence of instructions, \ 
re-write those instructions in the following format:

Step 1 - ...
Step 2 - …
…
Step N - …

If the text does not contain a sequence of instructions, \ 
then simply write \"No steps provided.\"

\"\"\"{text_1}\"\"\"
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print("Completion for Text 1:")
print(response)

Another example :

text_2 = f"""
The sun is shining brightly today, and the birds are \
singing. It's a beautiful day to go for a \ 
walk in the park. The flowers are blooming, and the \ 
trees are swaying gently in the breeze. People \ 
are out and about, enjoying the lovely weather. \ 
Some are having picnics, while others are playing \ 
games or simply relaxing on the grass. It's a \ 
perfect day to spend time outdoors and appreciate the \ 
beauty of nature.
"""
prompt = f"""
You will be provided with text delimited by triple quotes. 
If it contains a sequence of instructions, \ 
re-write those instructions in the following format:

Step 1 - ...
Step 2 - …
…
Step N - …

If the text does not contain a sequence of instructions, \ 
then simply write \"No steps provided.\"

\"\"\"{text_2}\"\"\"
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print("Completion for Text 2:")
print(response)

Guideline 1, Tactic 4 : Few Shot prompting

Example :

prompt = f"""
Your task is to answer in a consistent style.

<child>: Teach me about patience.

<grandparent>: The river that carves the deepest \ 
valley flows from a modest spring; the \ 
grandest symphony originates from a single note; \ 
the most intricate tapestry begins with a solitary thread.

<child>: Teach me about resilience.
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Guideline 2, Tactic 1 : Specify the steps required to complete a task

Example :

text = f"""
In a charming village, siblings Jack and Jill set out on \ 
a quest to fetch water from a hilltop \ 
well. As they climbed, singing joyfully, misfortune \ 
struck—Jack tripped on a stone and tumbled \ 
down the hill, with Jill following suit. \ 
Though slightly battered, the pair returned home to \ 
comforting embraces. Despite the mishap, \ 
their adventurous spirits remained undimmed, and they \ 
continued exploring with delight.
"""
# example 1
prompt_1 = f"""
Perform the following actions: 
1 - Summarize the following text delimited by triple \
backticks with 1 sentence.
2 - Translate the summary into French.
3 - List each name in the French summary.
4 - Output a json object that contains the following \
keys: french_summary, num_names.

Separate your answers with line breaks.

Text:
```{text}```
"""
response = get_completion(prompt_1)
print("Completion for prompt 1:")
print(response)

Ask for a output in a specified format.

prompt_2 = f"""
Your task is to perform the following actions: 
1 - Summarize the following text delimited by 
  <> with 1 sentence.
2 - Translate the summary into French.
3 - List each name in the French summary.
4 - Output a json object that contains the 
  following keys: french_summary, num_names.

Use the following format:
Text: <text to summarize>
Summary: <summary>
Translation: <summary translation>
Names: <list of names in summary>
Output JSON: <json with summary and num_names>

Text: <{text}>
"""
response = get_completion(prompt_2)
print("\nCompletion for prompt 2:")
print(response)

Guideline 2, Tactic 2 : Instruct the model to work out it's own solution before rushing to a conclusion

In the example below, the response by ChatGPT is expected to be wrong :

prompt = f"""
Determine if the student's solution is correct or not.

Question:
I'm building a solar power installation and I need \
 help working out the financials. 
- Land costs $100 / square foot
- I can buy solar panels for $250 / square foot
- I negotiated a contract for maintenance that will cost \ 
me a flat $100k per year, and an additional $10 / square \
foot
What is the total cost for the first year of operations 
as a function of the number of square feet.

Student's Solution:
Let x be the size of the installation in square feet.
Costs:
1. Land cost: 100x
2. Solar panel cost: 250x
3. Maintenance cost: 100,000 + 100x
Total cost: 100x + 250x + 100,000 + 100x = 450x + 100,000
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

The student's solution is not correct, but ChatGPT is expected to respond that this is correct.

We can fix this by instructing the model to work it out and then evaluate :

prompt = f"""
Your task is to determine if the student's solution \
is correct or not.
To solve the problem do the following:
- First, work out your own solution to the problem including the final total. 
- Then compare your solution to the student's solution \ 
and evaluate if the student's solution is correct or not. 
Don't decide if the student's solution is correct until 
you have done the problem yourself.

Use the following format:
Question:
```
question here
```
Student's solution:
```
student's solution here
```
Actual solution:
```
steps to work out the solution and your solution here
```
Is the student's solution the same as actual solution \
just calculated:
```
yes or no
```
Student grade:
```
correct or incorrect
```

Question:
```
I'm building a solar power installation and I need help \
working out the financials. 
- Land costs $100 / square foot
- I can buy solar panels for $250 / square foot
- I negotiated a contract for maintenance that will cost \
me a flat $100k per year, and an additional $10 / square \
foot
What is the total cost for the first year of operations \
as a function of the number of square feet.
``` 
Student's solution:
```
Let x be the size of the installation in square feet.
Costs:
1. Land cost: 100x
2. Solar panel cost: 250x
3. Maintenance cost: 100,000 + 100x
Total cost: 100x + 250x + 100,000 + 100x = 450x + 100,000
```
Actual solution:
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Model Limitations : Hallucinations

An example that may cause Hallucinations, is if some of the prompt is factually accurate, but not everything is accurate. For example the following prompt can cause this :

prompt = f"""
Tell me about AeroGlide UltraSlim Smart Toothbrush by Boie
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Iterative Development

Prompt Engineering is a development effort, and should be treated as such.

It has the following stages :

1. Ideation
2. Implementation
3. Experimentation/Testing
4. Error Analysis

For this section we'll take the following example :

fact_sheet_chair = """
OVERVIEW
- Part of a beautiful family of mid-century inspired office furniture, 
including filing cabinets, desks, bookcases, meeting tables, and more.
- Several options of shell color and base finishes.
- Available with plastic back and front upholstery (SWC-100) 
or full upholstery (SWC-110) in 10 fabric and 6 leather options.
- Base finish options are: stainless steel, matte black, 
gloss white, or chrome.
- Chair is available with or without armrests.
- Suitable for home or business settings.
- Qualified for contract use.

CONSTRUCTION
- 5-wheel plastic coated aluminum base.
- Pneumatic chair adjust for easy raise/lower action.

DIMENSIONS
- WIDTH 53 CM | 20.87”
- DEPTH 51 CM | 20.08”
- HEIGHT 80 CM | 31.50”
- SEAT HEIGHT 44 CM | 17.32”
- SEAT DEPTH 41 CM | 16.14”

OPTIONS
- Soft or hard-floor caster options.
- Two choices of seat foam densities: 
 medium (1.8 lb/ft3) or high (2.8 lb/ft3)
- Armless or 8 position PU armrests 

MATERIALS
SHELL BASE GLIDER
- Cast Aluminum with modified nylon PA6/PA66 coating.
- Shell thickness: 10 mm.
SEAT
- HD36 foam

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
- Italy
"""

The prompt we prepare is :

prompt = f"""
Your task is to help a marketing team create a 
description for a retail website of a product based 
on a technical fact sheet.

Write a product description based on the information 
provided in the technical specifications delimited by 
triple backticks.

Technical specifications: ```{fact_sheet_chair}```
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Issues we come up with are :

1. Text is too long
2. It focuses on wrong details
3. Description needs a table of dimensions

How to solve it are detailed in the sections below.

Issue 1 : Text is too long

Provide a limitation within the prompt :

prompt = f"""
Your task is to help a marketing team create a 
description for a retail website of a product based 
on a technical fact sheet.

Write a product description based on the information 
provided in the technical specifications delimited by 
triple backticks.

Use at most 50 words.

Technical specifications: ```{fact_sheet_chair}```
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Issue 2 : Text focuses on the wrong details

Ask it to focus on aspects that are relevant to the intended audience.

prompt = f"""
Your task is to help a marketing team create a 
description for a retail website of a product based 
on a technical fact sheet.

Write a product description based on the information 
provided in the technical specifications delimited by 
triple backticks.

The description is intended for furniture retailers, 
so should be technical in nature and focus on the 
materials the product is constructed from.

Use at most 50 words.

Technical specifications: ```{fact_sheet_chair}```
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

or

prompt = f"""
Your task is to help a marketing team create a 
description for a retail website of a product based 
on a technical fact sheet.

Write a product description based on the information 
provided in the technical specifications delimited by 
triple backticks.

The description is intended for furniture retailers, 
so should be technical in nature and focus on the 
materials the product is constructed from.

At the end of the description, include every 7-character 
Product ID in the technical specification.

Use at most 50 words.

Technical specifications: ```{fact_sheet_chair}```
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Issue 3 : Description needs a table of dimensions

Ask it to extract information and organize it in a table :

prompt = f"""
Your task is to help a marketing team create a 
description for a retail website of a product based 
on a technical fact sheet.

Write a product description based on the information 
provided in the technical specifications delimited by 
triple backticks.

The description is intended for furniture retailers, 
so should be technical in nature and focus on the 
materials the product is constructed from.

At the end of the description, include every 7-character 
Product ID in the technical specification.

After the description, include a table that gives the 
product's dimensions. The table should have two columns.
In the first column include the name of the dimension. 
In the second column include the measurements in inches only.

Give the table the title 'Product Dimensions'.

Format everything as HTML that can be used in a website. 
Place the description in a <div> element.

Technical specifications: ```{fact_sheet_chair}```
"""

response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Summarizing

How to summarize text with a focus on specific topics.

Sample text to summarize :

prod_review = """
Got this panda plush toy for my daughter's birthday, \
who loves it and takes it everywhere. It's soft and \ 
super cute, and its face has a friendly look. It's \ 
a bit small for what I paid though. I think there \ 
might be other options that are bigger for the \ 
same price. It arrived a day earlier than expected, \ 
so I got to play with it myself before I gave it \ 
to her.
"""

Summarize with a word/sentence/character :

prompt = f"""
Your task is to generate a short summary of a product \
review from an ecommerce site. 

Summarize the review below, delimited by triple 
backticks, in at most 30 words. 

Review: ```{prod_review}```
"""

response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Summarize with a focus on shipping and delivery :

prompt = f"""
Your task is to generate a short summary of a product \
review from an ecommerce site to give feedback to the \
Shipping deparmtment. 

Summarize the review below, delimited by triple 
backticks, in at most 30 words, and focusing on any aspects \
that mention shipping and delivery of the product. 

Review: ```{prod_review}```
"""

response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Summarize with a focus on price and value :

prompt = f"""
Your task is to generate a short summary of a product \
review from an ecommerce site to give feedback to the \
pricing deparmtment, responsible for determining the \
price of the product.  

Summarize the review below, delimited by triple 
backticks, in at most 30 words, and focusing on any aspects \
that are relevant to the price and perceived value. 

Review: ```{prod_review}```
"""

response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Try "extract" instead of "summarize" :

prompt = f"""
Your task is to extract relevant information from \ 
a product review from an ecommerce site to give \
feedback to the Shipping department. 

From the review below, delimited by triple quotes \
extract the information relevant to shipping and \ 
delivery. Limit to 30 words. 

Review: ```{prod_review}```
"""

response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)

Summarisze multiple product reviews :

review_1 = prod_review 

# review for a standing lamp
review_2 = """
Needed a nice lamp for my bedroom, and this one \
had additional storage and not too high of a price \
point. Got it fast - arrived in 2 days. The string \
to the lamp broke during the transit and the company \
happily sent over a new one. Came within a few days \
as well. It was easy to put together. Then I had a \
missing part, so I contacted their support and they \
very quickly got me the missing piece! Seems to me \
to be a great company that cares about their customers \
and products. 
"""

# review for an electric toothbrush
review_3 = """
My dental hygienist recommended an electric toothbrush, \
which is why I got this. The battery life seems to be \
pretty impressive so far. After initial charging and \
leaving the charger plugged in for the first week to \
condition the battery, I've unplugged the charger and \
been using it for twice daily brushing for the last \
3 weeks all on the same charge. But the toothbrush head \
is too small. I’ve seen baby toothbrushes bigger than \
this one. I wish the head was bigger with different \
length bristles to get between teeth better because \
this one doesn’t.  Overall if you can get this one \
around the $50 mark, it's a good deal. The manufactuer's \
replacements heads are pretty expensive, but you can \
get generic ones that're more reasonably priced. This \
toothbrush makes me feel like I've been to the dentist \
every day. My teeth feel sparkly clean! 
"""

# review for a blender
review_4 = """
So, they still had the 17 piece system on seasonal \
sale for around $49 in the month of November, about \
half off, but for some reason (call it price gouging) \
around the second week of December the prices all went \
up to about anywhere from between $70-$89 for the same \
system. And the 11 piece system went up around $10 or \
so in price also from the earlier sale price of $29. \
So it looks okay, but if you look at the base, the part \
where the blade locks into place doesn’t look as good \
as in previous editions from a few years ago, but I \
plan to be very gentle with it (example, I crush \
very hard items like beans, ice, rice, etc. in the \ 
blender first then pulverize them in the serving size \
I want in the blender then switch to the whipping \
blade for a finer flour, and use the cross cutting blade \
first when making smoothies, then use the flat blade \
if I need them finer/less pulpy). Special tip when making \
smoothies, finely cut and freeze the fruits and \
vegetables (if using spinach-lightly stew soften the \ 
spinach then freeze until ready for use-and if making \
sorbet, use a small to medium sized food processor) \ 
that you plan to use that way you can avoid adding so \
much ice if at all-when making your smoothie. \
After about a year, the motor was making a funny noise. \
I called customer service but the warranty expired \
already, so I had to buy another one. FYI: The overall \
quality has gone done in these types of products, so \
they are kind of counting on brand recognition and \
consumer loyalty to maintain sales. Got it in about \
two days.
"""

reviews = [review_1, review_2, review_3, review_4]

for i in range(len(reviews)):
    prompt = f"""
    Your task is to generate a short summary of a product \ 
    review from an ecommerce site. 

    Summarize the review below, delimited by triple \
    backticks in at most 20 words. 

    Review: ```{reviews[i]}```
    """

    response = get_completion(prompt)
    print(i, response, "\n")

Inferring

It can be useful to infer sentiments and topics from the product reviews and news articles.

Sample review text :

lamp_review = """
Needed a nice lamp for my bedroom, and this one had \
additional storage and not too high of a price point. \
Got it fast.  The string to our lamp broke during the \
transit and the company happily sent over a new one. \
Came within a few days as well. It was easy to put \
together.  I had a missing part, so I contacted their \
support and they very quickly got me the missing piece! \
Lumina seems to me to be a great company that cares \
about their customers and products!!
"""

Sentiment(positive/negative) :

prompt = f"""
What is the sentiment of the following product review, 
which is delimited with triple backticks?

Give your answer as a single word, either "positive" \
or "negative".

Review text: '''{lamp_review}'''
"""
response = get_completion(prompt)
print(response)