Level 1Unit D · Session 26
26

Unit D · AI and chatbots

Asking well

What we are making: the difference between a useless answer and a useful one, which is almost always in the question.

The idea

A chatbot gives you an answer shaped like your question. A vague question gets a vague answer, and people then blame the chatbot.

YOUTell me about robots.✗THE CHATBOTRobots are machines that can carry out tasks automatically.They are used in manufacturing, medicine, space explorationand many other fields...YOUI am 10 years old and I am building a robot that follows ablack line on the floor using one light sensor. Explain inthree sentences why it needs the sensor.✓THE CHATBOTYour robot cannot see, so the sensor is its only way oftelling floor from tape. It shines light down and measures howmuch bounces back. Pale floor bounces a lot, black tapebounces very little, and that difference is what your programuses to steer.
Same chatbot, thirty seconds apart. The difference is entirely in the question.

The four things to put in a prompt

  • Who you are. 'I am 10 years old' changes the whole answer.
  • What you are doing. The actual situation, briefly.
  • What you want back. A list? Three sentences? An example?
  • How long. Say it, or you will get an essay.
New words
PromptWhat you type to the chatbot.
ContextThe background you give it so it can answer usefully.
Follow-upAsking again to improve the answer. Almost always worth doing.
IterateGoing round again. First answers are rarely the best ones.

Do it — improve a bad prompt

In teams, with one computer. Your teacher gives each team one of these terrible prompts.

  • “Explain electricity.”
  • “Help with my project.”
  • “What is a loop?”
  • “Is my code wrong?”
  1. Type it exactly as written. Read the answer. Is it any use to you?
  2. Now rewrite it with all four things — who you are, what you are doing, what you want, how long.
  3. Type the new one. Compare the two answers side by side.
  4. Write down which single addition made the biggest difference.

Do it — ask again

The first answer is a draft. You are allowed to push back, and you should.

YOUThat was too complicated. Explain it again as if to a 9 yearold, in two sentences.✓THE CHATBOTA loop is a way of telling the computer to do the same thingagain without writing it out twice. You say how many times,and it counts for you.
Say what was wrong with the answer. That is more useful than starting over.
💡 Tip
Good things to say back: shorter, simpler, give me an example, I did not understand the third sentence, that is not what I meant, I meant...

The honesty rule

There is a line here, and it is worth being completely clear about where it is.

FineAsking it to explain somethingAsking why your code will not workAsking for ideas to choose betweenAsking it to check your spellingAsking what a word meansNot fineAsking it to do the workCopying its answer as yoursHanding in something youcannot explainUsing it in a test
The test: could you explain every sentence you hand in? If not, it is not your work.
⚠ Careful
Your teacher can almost always tell, and not because of clever software. It is because the writing suddenly does not sound like you, and because you cannot answer a question about your own work.

Try it

  1. Ask a chatbot to explain your Session 9 game back to you. Was it right about what your game does?
  2. Ask it for three ideas for your end-of-year project. Which one would you actually build, and why not the others?
  3. Ask it something you are an expert in — your family, your town, your favourite game. Mark its answer out of ten.

What you learned

  • A vague question gets a vague answer.
  • Say who you are, what you are doing, what you want, and how long.
  • The first answer is a draft. Push back on it.
  • Asking it to explain is fine. Asking it to do the work is not.
  • If you cannot explain it, it is not yours.
Challenge optional — only if you finish early
  • Get a chatbot to explain something you already know really well. Find its first mistake.
25. What a chatbot is, and what it is not