Lesson 1: What a prompt is, and why wording decides the answer

Let's start at the very beginning. A language model is a tool that takes text and returns text. The text we give it is called a prompt. In this lesson we'll understand what happens when you send a prompt, and why the way you phrase it changes the reply. No prior knowledge needed — and no code to wri

A language model is like a conversation partner that continues any text you give it. What you give it is called a prompt — and the more precise the prompt, the more on-target the reply.

language model (LLM): A tool that takes text and continues it with text: you give it a prompt and it returns a reply.
prompt: The text you send the model — the instruction, context, and question it builds its reply on.
prompt engineering: The skill of phrasing prompts that get a precise, useful reply from the model.