The job description varies per company, but broadly, prompt engineers are required to design and develop AI prompts using large language models. A few companies in India are also looking for “prompt engineers.”
New Delhi,UPDATED: Apr 12, 2023 12:33 IST
By Abhik Sengupta: As generative AI-powered chatbots, like ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Microsoft Bing Chat, are gaining momentum, there appears to be a spike in new roles involving prompt writing/engineers. While AI prompt-writing jobs have been around for a while, these roles are becoming mainstream and well-paying, a Twitter post indicates. According to the page AI Breakast, several companies are hiring “AI prompt engineers” or “prompt engineers” to build technologies and solutions around ChatGPT and other generative services. Remuneration-related details are not available, though some descriptions suggest that candidates with even two years of experience can apply. Some of them also offer the option for remote work.
The job description also varies, but broadly, prompt engineers are required to design and develop AI prompts using large language models. A few companies in India are also looking for “prompt engineers,” a quick LinkedIn search reveals. For instance, Telegana-based GrabOn is hiring a prompt engineer to “implement machine learning models to analyze collected data”, “test and evaluate the performance of AI prompts”, and “assist other team members in generating AI prompts for their specific needs.”
Recently, San Francisco-based AI startup Anthropic posted an opening for the same role with a starting salary of $335,000 per year, which is roughly Rs 2.7 crore. Its job description reads, “Given that the field of prompt-engineering is arguably less than 2 years old, this position is a bit hard to hire for! If you have existing projects that demonstrate prompt engineering on LLMs or image generation models, we’d love to see them… The expected salary range for this position is USD 175,000 to USD 335,000.”
Interestingly, several YouTube creators have also emerged on how to effectively use prompts to get the best out of generative AI-powered platforms. Some of these videos’ views are in lakhs.
What does this mean for future engineering roles?
As prompt engineering roles are slowly getting popular, there’s a looming concern about potential job losses. Many fear that AI chatbots may take over the jobs of coders, writers, and even content creators. These concerns are also worrying some industry experts, such as Tesla’s Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who signed an open letter asking tech companies to pause developments around generative AI for the next six months to see and analyse the situation.
On the other hand, top CEOs such as Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella have suggested that generative AI tools can pose a risk to some jobs, but the technology will get rid of scrappy work. This may leave workers with more opportunities and time in hand. Moreover, Nobel-winning economist, Christopher Pissarides, said at a conference that generative AI technologies can lead to a four-day work week.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT and Dall-E, has indicated that the AI space needs the government’s intervention. In a tweet in February, he said, “Regulation will be critical and will take time to figure out; although current-generation AI tools aren’t very scary, I think we are potentially not that far away from potentially scary ones.”
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Edited By:
Abhik Sengupta
Published On:
Apr 12, 2023
