Critics of artificial intelligence (AI) worry about the potentially lost jobs caused by new technology, but the blooming industry is creating job opportunities for those with the right skills.
Key Details
- New roles for AI-related jobs can earn some employees a $335,000 yearly salary—and they may not even need a computer engineering degree.
- Prompt engineers specialize in learning the correct language to produce better results from AI technology and teaching a company’s workforce to make effective use of the tools, Bloomberg reports.
- AI is developing rapidly in multiple fields, and major companies like Alphabet and Meta are already using it—prompt engineers help these entities harness the full power of AI.
Why it’s news
Though new technology can often make certain jobs obsolete, it often brings new career fields for industrious workers. Prompt engineers have to fully grasp the language that will draw out the best responses from language models like ChatGPT. These prompts that the engineers create can be saved for use by clients.
Whether or not the prompt engineering career will stick around is yet to be seen. The field began around 2017 when companies released “pre-trained” AI language models. When ChatGPT was released last year, millions of online users started, unknowingly, training as prompt engineers themselves as they tweaked questions to get desired responses from the AI chatbot.
These new positions pay well, too. Very well. Startup Anthropic is advertising for a “Prompt Engineer and Librarian” with a salary up to $335,000. Klarity, an automated document reviewer, has a job posting for a machine-learning engineer with a $230,000 compensation, Bloomberg reports.
While those with PhDs in machine learning or experience in AI startups are more likely to receive these high-paying positions, those with little to no experience can still enter the field. Those with less experience in the field can find jobs paying closer to $40,000.
Companies outside of the tech industry are starting to look for prompt engineers, too, though they are less likely to offer six-figure salaries. Legal firm Mishcon de Reya recently posted a position for a GPT Legal Prompt Engineer as the company tries to understand how AI can help its legal processes.
The firm’s partner and chief strategy officer, Nick West, warned that job seekers should not expect a six-figure salary.
“We don’t need a £300,000 expert, that’s ludicrous money,” West says.
