Prompt Engineering: A guide to Chain-of-Though Prompting

‘Chain of Thought’ Prompting

How to Make Your AI Think Out Loud!

Introduction

Have you ever wished your AI could reason through problems like a human? Chain of Thought prompting may be the solution you’re looking for. This technique encourages AI to tackle complex queries by breaking them down into intermediate steps before arriving at a conclusion, mimicking human reasoning. Dive into how this can transform your AI into a more thoughtful and analytical helper, unlocking new solutions!

What are “Chain of Thoughts” Prompts?

Chain of Thought prompting involves instructing your AI to verbalize its thought process step-by-step as it solves a problem or answers a question. This method not only enhances the transparency of the AI’s decision-making but also improves the accuracy and reliability of its answers.

Format of a “Chain of Thought” Prompt

The Question: Pose a complex problem or question that requires detailed reasoning.
The Reasoning Steps: Encourage the AI to explain each step of its thought process, demonstrating how it connects ideas and deduces answers.
The Conclusion: The AI summarizes its findings or provides the final answer after considering all reasoning steps.

Prompt Example 1: Mathematics domain

Question: “If a car travels 400 kilometers in 5 hours, how fast is it going?”
Reasoning: “To find the speed, I need to divide the total distance traveled by the total time taken. The formula for speed is Speed = Distance / Time. Applying this formula, the distance is 400 kilometers, and the time is 5 hours.”
Conclusion: “Therefore, the speed of the car is 400 kilometers divided by 5 hours, which equals 80 kilometers per hour.”
Question: “If a man ran 60 km in 4 hours, how fast did he ran?”
Conclusion:

Prompt Example 2: Technology domain

Question: “What are the potential benefits of using artificial intelligence in healthcare?”
Reasoning: “Artificial intelligence can benefit healthcare in several ways, such as improving diagnostic accuracy, personalizing treatment plans, and enhancing patient monitoring. AI can analyze large amounts of medical data quickly and with high precision, which helps in making more accurate diagnoses. Additionally, AI can predict patient outcomes based on past data, aiding doctors in crafting personalized treatment strategies. Moreover, AI-driven devices can continuously monitor patients, providing real-time data that can be crucial for critical care.”
Conclusion: “Hence, the use of AI in healthcare offers significant potential benefits, including enhanced diagnostic accuracy, personalized treatments, and improved patient monitoring, leading to better patient outcomes.”
Question: “What are the potential benefits of using artificial intelligence in coding?”
Conclusion:

Prompt Example 3: Science domain

Question: Why does mixing baking soda and vinegar cause a fizzy reaction?
Reasoning Steps:
What are the properties of baking soda and vinegar?
– Baking soda is a base, and vinegar is an acid.
What happens when acids and bases are combined?
– They react to neutralize each other, creating a gas (carbon dioxide).
What does it mean to ‘create a gas’?
– The reaction produces tiny bubbles of the gas that get trapped in the liquid.
Conclusion: The fizzy reaction is caused by the release of carbon dioxide gas when the acid (vinegar) and base (baking soda) react.
Question: “Why does mixing menthol with coca cola cause fizz explosion?”
Conclusion:

— Screenshot of example run on ChatGPT4 Plus —

Best Practices

The Questions Matter: Chain of Thought works best on complex or nuanced questions that require more than a simple factual answer.
Step Depth Varies: Some tasks might need many tiny reasoning steps for the AI to follow, while others might benefit from a few broader questions.
It’s a Tool, Not a Magic Wand: Chain of thought can boost AI accuracy but won’t magically give your AI the ability to reason about things it fundamentally doesn’t understand.
Practice and refine: Iteratively refine your prompts based on the AI’s responses to enhance clarity and reasoning depth.

Harness the Power of Thoughtful AI !

Chain of Thought prompting not only makes your AI’s decision-making process more transparent but also improves its problem-solving abilities, making it a valuable technique for anyone looking to leverage AI for complex reasoning tasks. Give it a try and see how your AI can think and reason more like a human!

Disclaimer!

LLM like ChatGPT, Gemini can provide incorrect and inaccurate outputs. Always double check the output before you use it.

Have a question?

If you have any other queries, feel free to drop a comment.

Learn More !

Experiment directly with ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
Want to learn more about effective prompts to get the best out of GenAI and LLMs?

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