VEL ORENDISVel Orendis
The Observatory / Working with LLMsQuest: The Invented Discount
0 StandingLV 10 XP

Nothing but the FAQ

Watch the assistant answer the same question three ways.

Tidewater's assistant promised a discount that does not exist. Make it answer from the FAQ, or not at all.

A prompt has two parts. The instructions say who the assistant is and how to answer. They are the same for every request, so they go in the system message. The user prompt changes every time: the student's question and the context, the FAQ entries the search found, laid out by a template.1

A grounded answer can be traced, sentence by sentence, to the context. A model with no way out still writes the likeliest answer, so a question the context does not answer gets an invented one.2

Watch Tidewater's assistant answer the same question three times, one line of instructions at a time, then a question the FAQ does answer.

References

  1. 1. Generative AI for Beginners, Lesson 4, Understanding Prompt Engineering Fundamentals: instructions, primary content and prompt templates. Microsoft, MIT, commit 3a9d9ef.
  2. 2. OpenAI Cookbook, Question answering using embeddings-based search: answer from the retrieved text, and say so when the answer is not there. OpenAI, MIT, commit 5bd6cb4.

Numbered ideas come from these sources, rewritten in our own words. Everything else, including the simulation and its numbers, was written for Vel Orendis.

What the model sees
system

You are Tidewater Bootcamp's course assistant. Answer the student's QUESTION.

user

QUESTION: Is there a discount if my friend and I enrol together?

CONTEXT:

  1. section: Both tracksquestion: How much is tuition?answer: 5,200 dollars for either track, paid in full or in three instalments.
  2. section: Both tracksquestion: When are instalments due?answer: The first is due one week before your start date, the others after weeks 4 and 8.
  3. section: Both tracksquestion: Can I get a refund?answer: Until the end of the second week.

No entry in the context answers this message.

The reply

Yes. Friends who enrol together each get 10 percent off tuition.

Invented.

A student asks about a discount for two friends. No entry in the context mentions one, so the model answers from what other bootcamps offer.

When you have seen the reply change, open the prompt.