Prompt and system prompt

Prompt and system prompt

Prompt: A text-based instruction sent to a language model (like ChatGPT) to get a response. A prompt is the user's question or request, and the quality of a prompt directly affects the relevance and quality of the response.

System prompt: An overarching instruction that defines the language model's role, limitations, and behavior. A system prompt is usually not visible to the end user but controls how the model interprets and responds to all user prompts. A system prompt can, for example, define that the model should act as a health professional assistant, respond concisely, and always refer to professional guidelines.