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Instruction Following

Aderenza alle Istruzioni

Instruction following is a model's ability to faithfully obey the prompt's instructions, format, length, tone, exclusions, even when they are multiple or complex. It is a property that emerges from training (instruction tuning) and varies from model to model. Example prompt with several constraints: "Write the description in exactly 50 words, in the second person, without using the word 'innovative', and end with a question." A model with strong following respects all four conditions; a weaker one drops some, typically the exact word count.

Definition

Account for it when setting strict constraints: state each requirement, number or list them to make them salient, and verify the output. If the model ignores a constraint, repeating it at the tail, isolating it with delimiters, or reducing simultaneous instructions often helps.

Related terms

• Negative Prompting
• Constraints (in prompting)
• Output Format
• Delimiters
• Role Prompting

More in Prompting

• Prompt
• Prompting
• Role Assignment
• Zero-shot
• Few-shot
• Chain of Thought
• Prompt Engineering
• Output Format

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