Prompting basics | Introducing Khanmigo | Khanmigo for students | Khan Academy

In this video, we're going to see that you can have very different experiences with the same AI, and a lot of that is depending on how we prompt the AI. So before we even start doing some prompting ourselves or even understanding what that means, let's just play around a little bit.

So I'm here on my account on Chat GPT, and I'm using GPT-4 as my model. The underlying model, remember, Chat GPT is the application; it can use different models. I could use GPT-3, 3.5, or GPT-4. In this case, these are from OpenAI.

Let's say that I want help understanding some concept in science. So let's say, uh, I want to understand how—let's say—how photosynthesis works! I really want to understand.

So over here, Chat GPT, using GPT-4, it's essentially creating a bit of an article. This is very similar to what I would see if I were to go to Wikipedia or if I were to just do a web search. It's actually giving a very lengthy article, whether I’m in the mood of reading this or not.

Photosynthesis is a fascinating process that allows plants, algae, and some bacteria... It talks about the absorption of light. This is a pretty involved article, but once again, not that different than what I would find if I went to Wikipedia or the internet.

Now, as a comparison, let's go to Kigo and do the same thing. I'm using the "Tutor Me in Math and Science" activity, and conmigo—this version of Kigo—is still using the same underlying model; it is using GPT-4, at least at the time of me making this video.

But let me ask the same question: I want to understand how photosynthesis works! Ah, photosynthesis! The magic trick plants use to turn sunlight into food! Let's dive in. First, can you tell me what you already know about photosynthesis?

So now you're thinking, wait, this is the exact same underlying model, but it's doing something very different here. Here, it's really acting like a tutor, and instead of just giving me a big verbal dump of an article, it is actually asking me a question.

Well, I could keep going into it. Well, I know that it's how plants convert sunlight into food. Great start! Now let's dig a bit deeper. Photosynthesis involves two main stages; can you name them? Interesting!

So it's really trying to quiz me, making sure that I'm understanding this. I could obviously spend hours talking about photosynthesis with Kigo, but that's not the point of this video. The point of this video is, why is Kigo behaving so differently than that interaction we saw with Chat GPT, even though it's using the same underlying model?

The answer is prompting. There are other things that work with Kigo, but for the most part, the KH Academy team has created prompts that encourage, direct, or steer—actually, the right word is "steering"—a model to act as a Socratic tutor, not to give big verbal dumps like you saw, but to ask questions, make sure the students understand, and then dig a little bit deeper.

Now, you might wonder, what does a prompt like that look like? Well, I could do that here on Chat GPT. Although it takes a little bit more work, I could say something like, "You are a Socratic tutor; I am your student. Try..." Well, let's just start with that as a simple prompt.

I will ask you questions, and I'm going to copy and paste this. There are more efficient ways of doing this, but just so that you... I’ll copy it for now so we can use it later and see. Let's see what it does.

I'm ready to help you explore and understand any questions you have. What's on your mind today? It's already doing something very different than what we saw in that previous example when I just asked how photosynthesis works.

So I say I want to know how photosynthesis works! All right, great topic! Let's start by exploring the basics of photosynthesis together.

So it's still not doing what Kigo did; it's still, you know, giving me maybe a little bit more verbiage or more text than I might like. So let's start over here. Let's start another thread, and this time, I copy and pasted, "You are a Socratic tutor; I am your student. I will ask you questions. Keep your responses as short as possible," and let's just do that for now.

So that was essentially my prompt.
Understood, please go ahead with your question: How does photosynthesis work?

Let's see how it's responding now.

So photosynthesis converts light energy into chemical energy; plants use sunlight. So it is doing what I asked it to do; it's giving a shorter response. Would you like more detail? But it's still just kind of giving me the answer.

So I want it to be more Socratic. Let's do this: "You're a Socratic tutor. I am your student. I will ask you questions; keep your responses as short as possible, and try to ask me questions on my understanding rather than just giving me answers."

And see what it does now. So, how does photosynthesis work?

Photosynthesis is a process plants use to make their own food. Can you tell me where it primarily takes place in the plant?

So you can see it's getting closer to what we just saw with conmigo by giving it that prompt. That prompt that we saw at the beginning every time it goes back and forth with the AI, the AI sees this at the beginning of our conversation stream, and that essentially primes the AI to behave in that way.

You could do prompts to do some pretty fun things. So let's say you... Actually, let me just—I should have copied and pasted. Actually, I think I can go back here. Let me copy and paste what I just had, and let me create a new thread, a new conversation.

"Speak in the tone of Dr. Seuss." Let's see what happens.

Oh, a question you have, my dear friend indeed! A curious mind is a wonderful seed. Now ask away, don’t delay; let's proceed! What's on your mind? What knowledge do you need?

I kind of like this one: How does photosynthesis work?

In a leafy green world where the sunlight's a treat, plants take in the light—oh so right and so neat! But how do they do it, you ask? Isn’t that sweet? Can you guess what they need besides light from the sun to make sugar and food and have all of their fun?

So there you go; that's prompting! By giving it clear instructions of what you want, especially when you begin, and later, we'll talk about how you can save this so you don't have to write this every time, or there's ways to do it depending on what app you need.

But this is how you can steer an AI—a large language model—to behave in the way that is useful to you.