Experts often use the analogy of a toddler to explain AI, suggesting that products like chatbot phenomenon ChatGPT need to be taught everything they know by real humans.
In the early stages, such Large Scale Language Models (LLMs) are created by developers and programmers and built to a usable level, and then there comes a point in the life of the AI where it needs to learn how to communicate clearly and efficiently.
This is where a new type of tech employee comes in — and they don't even need to know anything about coding.
They are the “prompt engineers” whose role it is to train the LLMs to continually provide accurate and useful responses to users.
Even though people for the job can earn six-figure salaries, potential employers often welcome candidates without technical backgrounds or coding skills, said Andrei Kaparshy, Tesla's former head of AI. put it: “The hottest new programming language is English.”
The shifting tech career landscape comes amid fierce competition for the top spots in the AI market, which has intensified in recent months since OpenAI's ChatGPT was hailed as a game-changer.
Google has begun the launch of chatbot competitor Bard shortly after Microsoft revealed that Bing will be revamped to incorporate ChatGPT. The tech giant is investing $10 billion in ChatGPT. Tesla has joined the fray with “Tesla Bot,” and Chinese search engine giant Baidu is developing its own version called Ernie Bot.
At the time of writing, Prompt engineer job openings range from contract remote work at $200 per hour to full-time positions paying up to $335,000.
One job posting from Anthropic, a San Francisco-based AI research and safety organization, requires basic programming skills.
However, the company said in its job advertisement: [they] Don't believe it [they] It meets all the qualifications.”
“We believe that AI systems like the ones we are building have significant societal and ethical implications,” the company said, “so representation becomes even more important and we strive to include diverse perspectives on our team.”
A unique perspective
Peter Pulu, CEO of Ecommerce Empire Builders, a company that designs and grows online sales platforms, has hired and trained two hit-the-job engineers who both make six figures a year.
Prue said. luck While a “solid” technical background is important, a diverse background is valuable in bringing unique experience to an ever-evolving platform.
The Philadelphia-based company's prompt engineers are tasked with working with various teams, from design to research and development, to create inputs that drive effective outcomes for clients, he explained. They also test new prompts to generate unique responses that can be fed back to clients to help them adjust and improve their services.
He said the company will “absolutely” look at training more agile engineers in the future, and that while the training process may “take time,” he sees it as an investment in success.
“Training typically involves teaching AI language models like ChatGPT and the intricacies of designing and optimizing prompts,” he said. luck.
“In a tool like ChatGPT, it's important to design prompts to get unique answers, not just ask random questions. Additionally, we need to learn how to analyze the performance of our prompts and collaborate effectively with researchers, designers, editors, and ad managers.”
New Opportunities
Kieran Scully, technology manager at boutique recruitment firm Morgan McKinley, said it was still early days to develop hit-the-job-ready engineering as a career path.
Scully said luck While skills like coding aren't essential to land the job, candidates with backgrounds in linguistics or critical thinking should at least become familiar with the fundamentals of data science, machine learning and deep thinking, even if only through free online courses.
Krystian Dabrowski, CEO of Polish knowledge assessment platform Testportal, agreed, reiterating that “candidates with non-technical backgrounds can certainly find opportunities in the AI industry.”
In an email, he said industry bosses look for tenacity, logical thinking and curiosity.
The idea of causation is also important, Dombrowskis added.
“Candidates who can provide more contextual information when crafting questions are more likely to receive comprehensive and accurate answers from the AI,” he said. “This ability to think critically and understand the importance of context is invaluable in the AI field.”
Scully believes AI-related jobs in niche markets such as healthcare, finance, gaming and law will continue to grow. A Goldman Sachs study estimated that 300 million jobs will be affected by generative AI, but Scully said that roles like teleprompter engineers “will likely be limited.” [A.I] “It's creating new jobs and it will continue to create new jobs, some of which we haven't even considered yet.”
2025 will be the peak year for employment
Employers like Testportal believe that chatbots are becoming increasingly commonplace across a range of well-established sectors, and that AI has also opened up the job market for people without traditional tech experience.
Although the profession is still in its infancy, experts predict a surge in jobs by 2025 for those looking to land a high-paying job as a graduate or career changer.
“The number of jobs being recruited is growing, but it's not as high as we'd like,” said Stephen Hellyer, director of London-based IT recruiter Initi8. luck He predicted that peak demand will come within 24 months as early adopters prove the value of the technology and jobs become more evident.
But for now, this is new territory, he added.
“Because the job is based on your ability to write prompts and not on previous experience, candidates will typically have a task-based interview,” Hellyer said. “This ensures we hire people from diverse backgrounds and hire based on their traits and abilities, not their previous experience.”
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com.
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