Ride the Lightning

AI Prompt Engineers Make a LOT of Money

June 15, 2023

Time reported on April 14 that prompt engineers make as much as $335,000 a year. I am not easily surprised but my eyebrows shot up when I read that. Mind you, that’s not the average salary . . . but still!

Many readers will not know what a prompt engineer is. Basically, they are training AI tools to ensure that they give the most accurate and relevant answers to questions that users ask. As far as I know, the term didn’t even exist until recently.

And here’s a bonus – you don’t need a degree in computer engineering or advanced coding skills.

Why is this job so hot? We have all witnessed the boom in generative AI – and its problems with making things up. AI companies are well aware that they need to get rid of the hallucinations.

Let me “show you the money.” Anthropic, an AI startup backed by Google, advertised salaries for as much as $335,000 for a “Prompt Engineer and Librarian” in San Francisco. I was amused to see this part of the job criteria:  Applicants must “have a creative hacker spirit and love solving puzzles.” Now there’s an offbeat combination.

Klarity, another AI company, is looking for a machine learning engineer who can “prompt and understand how to produce the best output” from queries. It is offering up to $230,000 – also not chump change.

So how do you get in on this goldmine? There are online courses which start at $150 and go as high as $3,970 for custom training and course certification.

Before you make the leap, be aware that some experts believe that prompt engineering may become obsolete once AI grows more powerful and (perhaps) capable of producing its own prompts.

Also, once knowledge of prompt engineering spreads – and it will – the value of this knowledge will go down.

It’s also a job that involves a lot of change. As AI evolves, prompt engineering that works today may not work tomorrow. Still, it is noteworthy that Tesla’s former chief of AI has said “The hottest new programming language is English.” There’s something to that – but for how long?

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
3975 University Drive, Suite 225, Fairfax, VA 22030
Email:  Phone: 703-359-0700
Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
https://senseient.com
https://twitter.com/sharonnelsonesq
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharondnelson
https://amazon.com/author/sharonnelson