The Truth About Prompt Engineer Salaries: Hype or Reality?
Image produced via Midjourney V5 with the prompt: “A cypberpunk prompt engineer writing code using a steampunk typewriter that glows with a mysterious blue light”
Have you heard about the latest craze in the AI world? Prompt engineering, the art of coaxing language models to produce better results, is quickly becoming a hot job market with salaries of up to $335,000 a year. But is it all just hype?
As a conversation design studio founder, I've been featured in a recent Bloomberg article discussing the rise of prompt engineering. While it's true that prompt engineering is a new and exciting field, I believe that the current salaries are more a byproduct of hype than an accurate market assessment.
You see, being a prompt engineer doesn't necessarily require a computer engineering degree. If you're a competent writer and can run an A/B test, you can be a prompt engineer. And as large language models continue to improve, prompt engineering will become less important, and eventually, it may become part of other roles rather than a job role in its own right.
Of course, that's not to say that prompt engineering isn't a fascinating field with endless possibilities. As AI tools continue to advance, we'll need more people who can help us interact with these tools in meaningful ways. However, as with any new field, there are still some kinks to work out.
One of the main challenges of prompt engineering is the lack of proper tools to help us do our jobs more efficiently. But as the technology evolves, we'll likely see the emergence of new tools that will make prompt engineering easier and more accessible.
So, to all those considering a career in prompt engineering, don't be discouraged by the hype. It's an exciting field with plenty of room for growth and innovation. However, let's not forget that the real value of our work lies in the impact we have on others, not just in our paychecks.
Cheers to all the prompt engineers out there, and here's to staying humble, adapting to change, and never losing sight of our values.
As I’m sure you can tell the above blog (including the title) was written for me by GPT-4 based on an article I was featured in for Bloomberg: $335,000 Pay for ‘AI Whisperer’ Jobs Appears in Red-Hot Market but I think it’s pretty decent if a bit corny towards the end.
In case you’re interested here’s the prompt I used to produce the blog:
Please write me a quick blog for my website that mentions that I (Tom Hewitson) was featured in the following Bloomberg article about prompt engineer salaries.
Please expand on my opinions that:
- the current salaries are a byproduct of hype rather than an accurate market assessment
- if you are a competent writer and can run an A/B test you can be a prompt engineer
- prompt engineering will become less important as Large Language Models improve
- prompt engineering will become easier once there are better tools for it
- prompt engineering will be a part of other roles rather than a job role in its own right
Please write it in a witty and informative style from a first-person (Tom's) perspective that's suitable for a digital agency with a dash of polemic thrown in for good measure. Don't greet the readers at the start or have a conclusion at the end. Also avoid using slang and cliched language.
Please also include a title for the blog.
Here's the article:
I will admit that it did take me several iterations of tweaking the prompt and regenerating outputs to get something that I felt was passable and I think that’s going to be the key role for the future - the person who’s job it is to sign off what an LLM has produced as ready for production.
Perhaps I should start calling myself an LLM manager or AI editor?