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73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

pub.towardsai.net

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Re: 73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

#31

Post by Workaccount2 »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #18
IncreasePosts wrote: post #15

Prompt engineering and using an expensive general model in order to prove your market, and then putting in the resources to develop a smaller(cheaper) specialized model seems like a good idea?

Are people down to have a bunch of specialized models? The expectation set by OpenAI and everyone else has set is that you will have one model that can do everything for you. It’s like how we’ve seen basically all gadgets meld into the smart phone. People don’t have Garmin’s and beepers and clock radios anymore (or dedicated phones!). It’s all on the screen that fits in your pocket. Any would-be gadget is now just an…

It's probably the direction it will go, at least in the near term.

It seems right now like there is a tradeoff between creativity and factuality, with creative models being good at writing and chatting, and factuality models being good at engineering and math.

It why we are getting these specific -code models.

Re: 73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

#32

Post by dboreham »

RobertDeNiro wrote: post #2

People talk about an AI bubble. I think this is the real bubble.

Not really because the money involved is relatively small. The bubble is where people are using D8s to push square kilometers of dirt around for data centers that need new nuclear power plants built, to house millions of obsolete Nvidia GPUs that need new fabs constructed to make, using yet more D8s..

Re: 73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

#33

Post by teucris »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #18
IncreasePosts wrote: post #15

Prompt engineering and using an expensive general model in order to prove your market, and then putting in the resources to develop a smaller(cheaper) specialized model seems like a good idea?

Are people down to have a bunch of specialized models? The expectation set by OpenAI and everyone else has set is that you will have one model that can do everything for you. It’s like how we’ve seen basically all gadgets meld into the smart phone. People don’t have Garmin’s and beepers and clock radios anymore (or dedicated phones!). It’s all on the screen that fits in your pocket. Any would-be gadget is now just an…

I think of the foundational model like CPUs. They're the core of powerful, general-purpose computers, and will likely remain popular and common for most computing solutions. But we also have GPUs, microcontrollers, FPGAs, etc. that don't just act as the core of a wide variety of solutions, but are also paired alongside CPUs for specific use cases that need specialization.

Foundational models are not great for many specific tasks. Assuming that one architecture will eventually work for everything is like saying that x86/amd64/ARM will be all we ever need for processors.

Re: 73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

#34

Post by lomase »

aurareturn wrote: post #6

Prompt engineering isn't as simple as writing prompts in english. It's still engineering data flow, when data is relevant, systems that the AI can access and search, tools that the AI can use, etc.

Imagine you are a top of the line engenier...

Engineering data flow... sure, we all like to use big words.

Re: 73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

#35

Post by jmogly »

analogpixel wrote: post #30

Where is this guy sitting that he is able to collect all of this data? And why is he able to release it all in a blog post? (my company wouldn't allow me to collect and release customer data like this.)

Im also wondering how he is able to see calls to AI providers directly in the browser, client side api calls? Thats strange to me. Also how is he able to peer into the rag architectures? I don’t get that, maybe GpT4.1 allows unauthenticated requests? Is there an OAuth setup that allows client side requests to OpenAI?

Re: 73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

#36

Post by scottiebarnes »

benoau wrote: post #21
amelius wrote: post #13

73% of AI startups are building their castle in someone else's kingdom.

It's worse than that, someone else's models, someone else's smartphone operating systems, it's every conceivable disadvantage.

Every city should have its own municipal chip fabrication plant!

Re: 73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

#37

Post by skx001 »

amelius wrote: post #25
asah wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

-1: there's lots of "kingdoms" (openai, anthropic, google, plus open source) - if one king comes for your castle, you can move in minutes.

True, even OpenAI built their castle in nVidia's kingdom. And nVidia built their castle in TSMC's kingdom. And TSMC built their castle in ASML's kingdom.

lastly we need the FDIC meme "Backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government" for good measure, haha.

Re: 73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

#38

Post by sgt101 »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #18
IncreasePosts wrote: post #15

Prompt engineering and using an expensive general model in order to prove your market, and then putting in the resources to develop a smaller(cheaper) specialized model seems like a good idea?

Are people down to have a bunch of specialized models? The expectation set by OpenAI and everyone else has set is that you will have one model that can do everything for you. It’s like how we’ve seen basically all gadgets meld into the smart phone. People don’t have Garmin’s and beepers and clock radios anymore (or dedicated phones!). It’s all on the screen that fits in your pocket. Any would-be gadget is now just an…

My coffee maker app is quite disappointing.

Re: 73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

#39

Post by dustbunny »

aurareturn wrote: post #6

Prompt engineering isn't as simple as writing prompts in english. It's still engineering data flow, when data is relevant, systems that the AI can access and search, tools that the AI can use, etc.

Human speech is "engineering data flow"

Painting is "engineering data flow"

Directing a movie is "engineering data flow"

Playing the guitar is "engineering data flow"

This statement merely reveals a bias to apply high value to the word "engineering" and to the identity "engineer".

Ironic in that silicon valley lifted that identity and it's not even legally recognized as a licensed profession.

Re: 73% of AI startups are just prompt engineering

#40

Post by InsideOutSanta »

analogpixel wrote: post #30

Where is this guy sitting that he is able to collect all of this data? And why is he able to release it all in a blog post? (my company wouldn't allow me to collect and release customer data like this.)

It sounds like some of these companies call the OpenAI or Anthropic APIs directly from their frontend. Later, the author also mentions "response time patterns for every major AI API," so maybe there's some information about the backend leaking that way even if the API calls are bridged.

But I'd like to know an actual answer to this, too, especially since large parts of this post read as if they were written by an LLM.

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