Your cheat sheet to working smarter with machines.
AI is rapidly disrupting Africa’s job market, many becoming redundant at a rapid rate while other roles are at risk because of AI’s ability to process large volumes of tasks across multiple skillsets and fields. It’s a challenging time–one that the World Economic Forum (WEF) has said will result in the loss of 85 million jobs. However, the WEF has also said AI will create 97 million new roles, particularly in the areas of AI development and human-AI collaboration.
Which means…learning how to use AI is fast becoming a critical skillset. The problem is that while the amount of information about AI is extensive, there aren’t very clear pathways to learning how to use it, tap into it, code with it, and make it your own. What AI platform should you use? How do you get it to work more efficiently? What constitutes a good prompt?
Mandla Mbonambi, CEO of Africonology, tells FORBES AFRICA why being polite to your AI is crucial: “Your AI pays attention to how you talk to it. If you speak harshly, it will give you a harsh answer. Mine, however, has been trained on politeness and warmth so it answers my questions with more detail, more insights.”
How to talk to your AI: Simple steps
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It doesn’t matter which AI platform you use–the Meta chatbot in WhatsApp, Claude, Grok, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, the Wix chatbot–you want to start your relationship with the platform on the right foot. While some, like Claude, don’t hold long-term memory, they do respond to politeness.
Negative remarks and poor communication will teach the AI that this is how you want to be treated. Your results won’t be poorer, they will just be direct. You ask for the code to build a website; it will give you the code. That’s it, though. It won’t try harder. So, be nice, it makes you feel nicer and your AI work harder.
Use these prompts:
- Take a deep breath and let’s work on this problem one step at a time – supportive prompts like these actually make an LLM more capable of solving problems.
- Please can you…Thank you…Researchers are calling this the ‘performance premium of politeness’. Your responses will have fewer mistakes and will be more thorough.
- Could you please generate a report vs Generate a report
- It’s so amazing that you can…Tell your AI that its abilities are amazing, and it will respond in kind.
- I appreciate how much you know about Africa; can you tell me more about the Sahara? Start your prompts with praise.
Test it: Try using rude, polite, harsh or distant prompts and see how your AI responds.
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