The Genie in a Bottle

A prompt is like a wish to a genie — the more precise, the better!

Imagine you find an old lamp and — POOF — out comes a genie! It says: "You have three wishes!"

You say: "I want to be able to fly!"

And POOF — you're a fly. 🪰

Oops. The genie granted your wish. But not the way you meant it.

AI Is Like a Genie

AI takes your words very literally — but doesn't always understand what you actually mean. That's why you need to make your wishes — meaning your prompts — as precise as possible.

Here's an example:

❌ Vague prompt: "Write something about animals"

✅ Good prompt: "Write a funny story about a dragon who goes to school and hates math. The story should be for kids."

See the difference? The good prompt tells the AI:

Who is involved? (a dragon)
What happens? (it goes to school)
How should it be? (funny, for kids)

Try It Out: Build Your Own Prompt!

Build your prompt!

Click one option in each row:

Who?

Does what?

How?

❌ Vague wish

"Write something about animals"

✅ Precise wish

"Select something from each category..."

How Does the AI Know Who You Mean?

When you write "The dog barks because it is hungry" -- how does the AI know that "it" means the dog and not the hunger?

It looks! For every word, the AI checks which other words fit with it. Tap a word and see what the AI pays attention to:

Tap a word. Then you can see what the AI looks at.

The grey words come later in the sentence. The AI only ever looks to the left -- it does not know yet what comes after.

"it" looks straight back at "dog". That is how the AI keeps track of who is meant.

Attention distribution — «it»

dogvery strongly

it(itself)a little

becausea little

A real AI does exactly the same thing -- just with a lot more words at once, and with much longer sentences.

And that is exactly why precise prompts matter so much: if your sentence is unclear, the AI has to guess -- and it does not always guess right.

Three Tips for Good Prompts

1. Be specific! Tell the AI what you want — not just the topic, but also how and for whom.

2. Give the AI a role! For example: "Explain it to me as if you were a pirate" — that makes the answer much more exciting.

3. Say what you DON'T want! For example: "Explain it simply, without difficult words."

▶Want to know more?

Imagine telling a painter: "Paint a picture." They don't know if you want a portrait, a landscape, or an abstract artwork. The more you tell them, the better the painting!

It's the same with AI: more details = better results. This is called Prompt Engineering — the art of writing good instructions for AI.

Test Your Knowledge

What makes a prompt BETTER?