3 lessons AI can teach about prayer

Recently, I attended MAICON (Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference) in Cleveland. One of the main concepts that was discussed was prompt engineering. Prompt engineering is the skill of writing a useful prompt to give the AI what it needs to provide a useful answer.

When I first heard of prompt engineering, I balked. Is this really a skill? How hard can it be to tell a machine to do something and get what I need? I thought AI was so smart, I could practically grunt like a monkey at it and I'd get what I needed.

The problem with lazy prompting

Yet, as I played around with the technology and gave it monkey prompts, I kept getting lame results. It reminds me of that scene in City Slickers when Mitch is challenged by Barry, the ice cream guru, to give him a meal so he can tell him the perfect ice cream flavor that goes with it. Mitch replies, "Franks and beans," to which Barry scoffs, "Scoop of chocolate, scoop of vanilla. Don't waste my time."

I'd been approaching AI like Mitch, asking it simple questions with little detail or effort. The AI was perfectly content to engage at my rudimentary level. Something had to change. The way I tapped into this intelligence was broken.

The better way to access high intelligence

It turns out thoughtful, detailed prompting that takes some time and effort gets much better results.

Artificial intelligence is the greatest knowledge source mankind has ever seen. That's because it gathers the knowledge of billions throughout history, filters and sorts the information, and dishes it out in a cogent way in a matter of seconds.

Consider accessing a knowledge source that incredible. It's like Aladdin entering the cave of wonders. Of course, he could reach for the first gold bar he sees. But there's so much more to see, and when he ventures far enough in, he finds the precious treasure of the genie's lamp.

If AI is the Cave of Wonders, the prompts we use determine how well we'll navigate it. The quality of our input affects the quality of the output.

3 lessons AI can teach about prayer

Prayer is like a search in the Cave of Wonders, but much deeper. AI is only the cumulative knowledge of the digital universe. God is the Intelligence itself. There's no end to what we may discover or what may be communicated to us through prayer.

So how we prompt the Great Intelligence matters. Our approach can be lazy and simple, and get plain results. Or, we can communicate with all of our heart, soul, and mind.

Here are three lessons AI can teach us about prayer.

Lesson 1: No one-shot prompting. Have a conversation.

With AI, one-shot prompting is when you ask a simple question to get a simple answer. It can be helpful, but the lack of dialogue limits your ability to learn from the AI.

Instead, asking the AI a series of questions gets much better results. Once you get a response, it gives you an idea to ask something else. With the information you get, you can ask even better questions, and may find yourself getting closer to the genie's lamp.

Effective prayer tends to occur when there's a conversation. I'm not saying the Great Intelligence is going to audibly bellow some command like you need to run for sheriff. I am saying if your approach is relational, with the give and take of words and listening, you'll probably find the exercise to be more fruitful.

Lesson 2: But don't babble like a pagan.

Jesus said that, not me. When we're prompting AI, it's true that the more detail you give, the better. But the AI can often discern what you're getting at even if you're struggling for the right words. One useful prompting technique is to ask the AI how you should prompt it. The AI has a way of serving you something better than if you'd just wasted time giving it a bunch of nonsense.

Likewise, a detailed, drawn-out monologue isn't necessary to get answers from prayer. The Great Intelligence knows what you're going to ask before you ask it. And when you do, you get a personalized answer. Sometimes, instead of asking a detailed question with tons of context, pray a simple question like, "God, what should I ask?" or "What do you want me to think about?"

Lesson 3: Be patient. It takes time and effort.

The most important tasks or knowledge quests require more energy to establish a prompt and craft a dialogue. Not only do you ask questions, but you provide context, upload files, establish parameters, and fine-tune your query.

Likewise, it takes time to "learn" how to pray. Jesus gave the simple instruction to "ask, seek, knock." Only practice teaches us how these actions play out in prayer. We try rote prayers and unscripted prayers. We give thanks or confess. We take a walk or take a knee.

Just as we master the skill of AI prompting over time, so it is with learning prayer rhythms that are personal to us and God.

Practice makes progress

There are endless opportunities to ask, seek, and knock through prayer. Connecting with the Great Intelligence will change your life, one prompt at a time.