AI School › Talking to AI · Lesson 31 of 130

✍️ How do you write a good request?

A request to AI is like ordering at a café: the clearer you are, the better what you get.

Imagine walking into an ice cream shop and just saying "an ice cream". The seller doesn't know the flavour, cup or cone, how many scoops. They'll ask a hundred questions or guess. Talking to AI is the same: the request you write is called a prompt, and it's your order. If you say "a chocolate ice cream in a small cup", you get exactly what you want. AI can't read your mind: it works only with the words you give it, so those words are your steering wheel.

Compare two requests. The first: "Tell me about dogs". The second: "Explain in five lines why dogs wag their tails, in simple words for a nine-year-old". The second is far more useful, because you gave the topic, the length and the audience. You don't need to be polite like with a teacher, but you do need to be precise like with a treasure map: every detail you add is one more step toward the right answer.

🎒 Try it in class (or at home)

Write the same request in two ways, one vague and one precise, and compare the two AI answers: which helped you more?

← Lesson 30: Your future with AI: aware digital citizens · Lesson 32: Why being specific changes everything →

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