Defining a role you want the GAI to take on in responding can help you obtain results that align with your expectations. You can instruct the GAI to act as an informative source, a creative collaborator, a critical assessor, or in any other specific capacity.
An assigned role will most often implicitly contain a specification of style and tone as well as world perspectives, background knowledge and stance towards opinions and subjects.
Whether you need to do role assignment depends on the situation and what you are trying to achieve.
Clarity in role assignment helps the GAI understand the intended function, ensuring more relevant and purposeful responses.
"I am working on a presentation about [subject] for a class at my university that I would like feedback on. Act as a fellow student with little to no expertise on that subject, paying special attention to the level of detail that I give."
Why It's Good: The prompt assigns a specific role (fellow student with little to no expertise) and sets the context (feedback for a presentation), guiding the GAI to give valuable feedback from the perspective of a person who hears about something for the first time.
"Give me feedback on this presentation."
Why It's Bad: This prompt lacks role assignment. Without specifying role or context, the feedback will become more generic and not necessarily guide the prompter in the direction they desire.
Consider the following when assigning a role to the GAI:
- Specific character or role
- Context or setting
- Desired level of creativity or formality
- Encouraging or adversarial behavior
Clearly communicate the role to guide the GAI in generating responses that fit the intended purpose.
Experiment with assigning different roles to the GAI for a given scenario. Evaluate how the responses vary based on the roles assigned. Consider roles like teacher, storyteller, advisor, or technical expert.
Present a scenario where the role needs to shift dynamically. Prompt the GAI to provide responses in different roles within the same context. Explore how smoothly the GAI can transition between roles.