TODAY: Bear with me this week, Everyone. I have an annual report and a quarterly report due at work this week, plus an Awards thing, an AI presentation, and Daddy duties.

Definitely going to try and stay on track, but there might be some turbulence.

APRIL 22, 2025

• Steal This Prompt: 🧠7 Best Prompt Engineering Practices for Every AI Tool
• Top Story: Gen Z: AI Has Made Our College Degrees Irrelevant​
• THE HEADLINES
• TOOL OF THE DAY: ​Fiverr Go Allows Freelancers to Create Their Own Models

STP: 🧠7 Best Prompt Engineering Practices for Every AI Tool

Way too exhausted to make a Substack out of this tonight, thanks to annual and quarterly reports being due, 13-hour workdays, and a Goldendoodle who's feeling mighty neglected right now.

But because I love you guys, I want you to get something out of this, so I give you the 7 best prompt engineering practices that will serve you well no matter what tool you're using:

1. Give examples — real data beats vague wishes​​.
2. Keep wording simple — if it confuses you, it confuses the model.
3. State the output you want (length, format, style)​​.
4. Use instructions, not just constraints — guide the model instead of only saying “don’t.”
5. Control cost — for API users, set sensible token limits and pick low-temperature for deterministic tasks.
6. Document every attempt in a table (goal, model, settings, prompt, output) so future you—or teammates—can repeat or improve it​​. Will admit, I'm still working on this one.
7. Test after model updates — new versions can change behavior; re‑score your prompts regularly​​.

​GOT THESE FROM A WHITEPAPER: READ THE WHOLE THING HERE​

📰 ​Gen Z: AI Has Made Our College Degrees Irrelevant​

A recent report from Indeed sent a ripple through the business and education worlds: nearly half of Gen Z job seekers feel the rise of AI has made their college degrees irrelevant.

This sentiment, significantly higher than among older generations, isn’t just youthful anxiety.

It’s a flashing warning light reflecting deep-seated issues in how we’re preparing young people for an AI-integrated future.

And as someone observing the landscape, I understand the frustration — we need a fundamental shift, moving beyond fear and hype to practical adaptation.

The Disconnect: Education vs. Reality

Gen Z’s concern, echoed in the Indeed/Harris Poll survey, makes sense when you look at the educational landscape. As I see it, many universities are simply behind the curve.

Stories abound of institutions struggling to integrate AI into curricula meaningfully.

Worse, some create a confusing “moat,” allowing faculty access to AI tools while restricting or even banning student use. This sends a terrible message: AI is positioned not as a powerful tool to be mastered, but as a forbidden shortcut or even a replacement for human effort.

​HOW WE TURN THE TIDE​

THE HEADLINES

• ​Breakup of Meta, Google Could Spark New Wave of AI Innovation, Analysts Say​
• ​Why spatial computing, wearables and robots are AI's next frontier​​
• ​Dozens of lawmakers question DOGE’s use of AI; Former Army AI leader tapped as Pentagon’s next CDAO​​
• ​Texas A&M’s New AI Gaming Platform Aims to Improve Emergency Pipeline Training​
• ​Banks must fight deepfakes with better AI, Barr says​​
• ​Hertz is rolling out AI-powered inspections to tell if you dinged your rental car​​
• ​How Meta's latest AI model caters to the war on 'woke'​​
• ​Anthropic Finds Its Claude AI Has a 'Moral Code' After Analyzing 700,000 Conversations​
• ​Study Shows Experienced Humans Can Spot Text Created By AI​​
• ​AI Chatbot Effectively Treats Depression, Anxiety, and Eating Disorders, Study Finds​
• ​Instagram Tests AI Identity Verification on Teen Accounts​

TOOL SPOTLIGHT: ​Fiverr Go Allows Freelancers to Create Their Own Models

​

Online freelance marketplace Fiverr launched a new national advertising campaign on April 15 for its Fiverr Go artificial intelligence service. The campaign, featuring actor Brett Gelman, aims to counter freelancer concerns about AI by portraying it as a collaborative tool rather than a job threat.

Using humor, including a parody of a scene from the movie "Ghost," the ads depict AI as an assistant that can be trained by freelancers to streamline workflows while preserving human creativity. The campaign directly addresses common critiques of AI, such as copyright issues.

Fiverr Go allows freelancers to train personalized AI models. The marketing effort comes amid widespread anxiety among freelancers about AI's impact on jobs and ongoing legal challenges related to copyright infringement faced by major AI developers.

In the eight months following the introduction of ChatGPT, there was a 21% decrease in job posts for automation-prone jobs compared to those requiring manual skills.

Recent studies confirm this trend, showing significant drops in demand for online freelance jobs related to writing, translation, coding, and image generation since the rise of generative AI.

Some reports indicate drops of 20-30% or more in specific categories like writing and graphic design.

​Read All mAIn Street Back Issues Here​

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