Is Prompt Engineering Changing Programming?

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Is Prompt Engineering Changing Programming?

  • Prompt engineering, the no-code method of instructing GenAI systems to produce outputs, is the new buzzword in technology.
  • Spiceworks News & Insights explores prompt engineering, whether it will change the future of work and the role of programmers, and whether you should go all in on it.

During NVIDIA’s annual developer conference in March 2024, its CEO Jensen Huang said, “You don’t have to be a C++ programmer to be successful,” while sharing his thoughts on how generative AI (GenAI) is shrinking the tech divide. “You just have to be a prompt engineer.”

“And who can’t be a prompt engineer? When my wife talks to me, she’s prompt engineering me… We all need to learn how to prompt AIs, but that’s no different than learning how to prompt teammates,” Huang added during the NVIDIA GTC 2024 keynote. “Programming is not going to be essential for you to be a successful person.”

Is he right?

Huang has emerged as one of the most respected voices in AI. His company’s hardware is used to train the most sophisticated GenAI models. His inherent and irreplaceable contribution to providing the sheer computing power GenAI training and inferencing needs has made his products the most sought-after commodity by AI developers and Huang, an investors’ favorite techie.

Huang’s keynote attracted more than 10,000 people, forcing NVIDIA to book the SAP Center, located a mile from the San Jose Convention Center, the venue for the NVIDIA GTC 2024. So, at least 10,000 people were willing to listen to what he had to say.

Huang later added, “But if somebody wants to learn to do so [learn coding], please do because we’re hiring programmers.”

Spiceworks News & Insights explores what prompt engineering is and whether you should go all in on it.

What Is Prompt Engineering?

Deemed as one of the “jobs of the future” by the World Economic Forum, prompt engineering is a no-code method of instructing GenAI systems to perform a particular task. Prompts are human language inputs for GenAI tools based on large language models (LLMs), and prompt engineering is the practice of writing those inputs.