A Brief History of Prompt: Leveraging Language Models. (Through Advanced Prompting)

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive exploration of the evolution of prompt engineering and generation in the field of natural language processing (NLP). Starting from the early language models and information retrieval systems, we trace the key developments that have shaped prompt engineering over the years. The introduction of attention mechanisms in 2015 revolutionized language understanding, leading to advancements in controllability and context-awareness. Subsequent breakthroughs in reinforcement learning techniques further enhanced prompt engineering, addressing issues like exposure bias and biases in generated text. We examine the significant contributions in 2018 and 2019, focusing on fine-tuning strategies, control codes, and template-based generation. The paper also discusses the growing importance of fairness, human-AI collaboration, and low-resource adaptation. In 2020 and 2021, contextual prompting and transfer learning gained prominence, while 2022 and 2023 witnessed the emergence of advanced techniques like unsupervised pre-training and novel reward shaping. Throughout the paper, we reference specific research studies that exemplify the impact of various developments on prompt engineering. The journey of prompt engineering continues, with ethical considerations being paramount for the responsible and inclusive future of AI systems.