Prompts Vs. Logic

The big assumption behind prompt-based interactions is that users can articulate what they want the AI to do. Reality is not that simple.

In the human brain, the language center is separate from the logic center. That’s the reason why people have difficulty articulating something that they fully understand. This disconnect creates a fundamental challenge for prompt-based AI systems.

Those Who Master Articulation

Certain professions have mastered the art of bridging this gap:

Executives provide direction for entire organizations. The best ones have honed their ability to connect the logic center with the language center.
Military leaders undergo specific training on articulating command intent. In the pressure and chaos of battle, confused articulation in orders has repeatedly cost lives and battles throughout history. The best militaries consider these courses critical requirements for promotions and senior command positions.
Teachers must figure out how to communicate concepts using language that students can understand.
Programmers find writing prompts relatively easy because they’ve been trained in the art of instructing computers. They work at different levels of abstraction—from requirements and use cases to code and shell commands. Their brains are trained to connect logic with language to articulate what computers need to do. It’s no surprise that programmers and engineers are some of the best writers on the internet today.

The Challenge for Prompt-Based AI

If writing instructions, commands, and directives is a skill so difficult to acquire, how can prompt-style interaction become the mainstay of AI-based solutions?

Great self-serve interfaces work well because designers spend an incredible amount of time understanding and eliciting user mental models. This understanding translates into UX interactions that “just get it” when users open the app. It makes users feel as if someone read their mind without having to be told. Can prompt-based interactions ever make users feel the same way?

A Programmer’s Perspective

As a programmer, I love that I can produce results with ease and far reduced effort using AI. I recognize that the alternative—writing code myself—takes time, is expensive, and isn’t always the highest-value work I need to do. As a way of offloading the coding process, prompt-based generative AI systems are exceptionally valuable.

But for the broader population who haven’t developed the skill of articulation, the question remains: is prompt-based interaction the primary interaction posture for accessing AI?