ChatGPT, the machine-learning marvel that has stormed the world, has already created a new job category with prospects of unbelievably high salary.
According to the reports by Bloomberg and Business Insider, the new job can be called ‘AI Whisperer’ or ‘ChatGPT Whisperer’ – someone who can communicate meaningfully with the app.
The actual job description is ‘prompt engineer,’ a person who can coax the AI to produce better results and help companies train their workforce to harness the tools.
As reported by Bloomberg, Prompts “are the main way people are interacting with these tools, and therefore being good at that is of high value,” says Adrian Weller, a director of research in machine learning at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. “I wouldn’t be so sure that it will continue for a long time. Don’t dwell too much on the current state of prompt engineering. It’s starting to evolve quite quickly.”
A competent prompt engineer can be paid upward of USD 335000 a year (more than USD 28000 per month).
“It’s like an AI whisperer,” says Albert Phelps, a prompt engineer at Mudano, part of consultancy firm Accenture in Leytonstone, England. “You’ll often find prompt engineers come from a history, philosophy, or English language background, because it’s wordplay. You’re trying to distill the essence or meaning of something into a limited number of words.”
ChatGPT is not the only game in town. Over a dozen artificial intelligence language systems called large language models, or LLMs, have been created by companies like Google parent Alphabet Inc., OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc.. The technology has moved rapidly from experiments to practical use, with firms like Microsoft Corp. integrating ChatGPT into its Bing search engine and GitHub software development tool.
Companies like Anthropic, a Google-backed startup, are advertising salaries up to $335,000 for a “Prompt Engineer and Librarian” in San Francisco. Automated document reviewer Klarity also in California is offering as much as $230,000 for a machine learning engineer who can “prompt and understand how to produce the best output” from AI tools. Outside of the tech world, Boston Children’s Hospital and London law firm Mishcon de Reya recently advertised for prompt engineer jobs, says the Bloomberg report.
It is now even possible to buy and sell text prompts via the PromptBase marketplace, which also helps people hire prompt engineers to create individual prompts for a fee, it says.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has spoken about the need for prompt engineers. In February, he tweeted that “writing a really great prompt for a chatbot persona is an amazingly high-leverage skill.”
Anna Bernstein, a prompt engineer at Copy.ai, was a freelance writer and historical research assistant before she started working with AI tools.
“I love the ‘mad scientist’ part of the job where I’m able to come up with a dumb idea for a prompt and see it actually work,” Bernstein told Insider. “As a poet, the role also feeds into my obsessive nature with approaching language. It’s a really strange intersection of my literary background and analytical thinking.”
The market for prompt engineers is growing. PromptBase, a prompt marketplace that launched last June, allows people to hire prompt engineers or sell their prompts. /// nCa, 5 April 2023