With the popularization of services using 'generative AI' technology such as ChatGPT approaches, there are new jobs that are emerging. It is a 'prompt engineer', which refers to a job that gives appropriate instructions so that artificial intelligence can exert 120% of its capabilities. On the other hand, there are predictions that the need for prompt engineers as a job will decrease as AI services advance.


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On the 15th, Rutten Technology, a start-up that creates content based on artificial intelligence, announced that it would be openly hiring a 'prompt engineer' for the first time among domestic information technology (IT) companies, and put forward an unconventional condition of 'up to 100 million won in annual salary'. Regarding the prompt engineer job group, the company said, “They will be in charge of creating, verifying, and documenting prompts (directors) for various purposes used in the service.” “Understand the characteristics and limitations of generative artificial intelligence and apply them to directives. We are looking for someone who can do it,” he said.

A prompt is a message conveyed to help someone perform a specific task. It's easy to understand if you think of a 'prompter' that brings up a script so that an announcer doesn't forget what he has to say when presenting the news. Generative AI services such as chatbots and image generators produce completely different results depending on the level of questions or instructions entered by users. Therefore, it is necessary to train the artificial intelligence model by asking questions appropriate to the situation in detail.

The American information technology (IT) magazine <Insider> defined a prompt engineer as “an expert who writes directives instead of codes to verify artificial intelligence chatbots.” This means that the ability to understand context is more important than coding skills. Rutten Technology also said it would not look at coding skills when selecting prompt engineers.

Foreign companies are hiring prompt engineers ahead of us. Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup invested in by Google, announced last month that it was looking for a prompt engineer and data library manager with an annual salary of 300 million to 400 million won. in progress The Ministry of Science and ICT recently announced that it was reviewing a plan to establish a new curriculum to nurture prompt engineers.

Some analysts say that the life of a prompt engineer will not last long. First of all, the prevailing prediction is that the ability to ask artificial intelligence appropriate questions or tasks will become a 'basic literacy' that everyone, not just people with specific jobs, should have. There are also ways to get quality prompts cheaper than using a human. An example is the appearance of websites such as Chat X (X), Newtron Pill, and Prompt City, where prompts can be purchased and used for about $1 per transaction.

The sophistication of technology and services may also gradually reduce the need for prompt engineers as a profession. An official from a domestic artificial intelligence startup said, “A prompt engineer is someone who has studied how to ask questions before anyone else. However, if artificial intelligence services become popular, it will be widely known which questions are 'good questions' in a specific field, and if AI models are learned and advanced based on that, the need for individual companies to hire prompter engineers as a job will disappear. well,” he said.