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AGI Is Already Here — It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed
Or: why you should learn to prompt AI models
I. Never underestimate the value of a good prompt
You may have heard me say that prompt engineering is dead. Turns out it was just sleeping.
This is a redemption post for that bad take. It’s also a hopeful one as we’ll see. And a warning: there’s no time to lose. As AI models get better, your chances of belonging to the AI-poor crowd (those unprepared to leverage AI for their benefit) grow as a function of your lack of money and lack of prompting skills. Neither you nor I will win the lottery anytime soon so I’ll focus on the latter today.
The clickbaity headline suggests AGI is here. It isn’t. I lied. Well — sort of. I’ll have to argue my way there, and if I fail, you’re free to call me a liar. For the skeptics: I don’t believe today’s top AI models (e.g., o3) qualify as AGI. I like to say, “No AGI is dumb at times.” I assume we can all agree ChatGPT doesn’t quite meet the bar.
But even an AGI denier like me must concede that prompt wizards have a knack for coaxing these models, pressing the right buttons until they perform like general intelligences. If the capability of an AI model depends on whose hands are at the wheel, then, eventually…
