What AI Has In Common with Dressage
Yes, horse dressage. Hear me out.
Did you know that two months ago ago, LA was on fire? Yep, for real. That’s where I live. Anyway, our place was quite literally in the line of fire, so my husband Danny and I hightailed it out of there to our friend’s mom’s place in Orange County. She was generous enough to host us for a whole week (thanks Debbie!).
Debbie’s lifelong passion is horses. She owns three, and her three horses are all bona fide ribbon-winning champs. Hell yeah, Debbie.
Over the course of the week, Debbie shared some incredible stories with Danny and me, and I learned way more than I ever knew about horses. For instance: did you know that there is WESTERN dressage and ENGLISH dressage? Me neith- oh, you don’t even know what dressage is?
Yes you do.
Remember this iconic Snoop Dogg moment?
I know. It really doesn’t get old.
Anyway, now you know what dressage is. Great!
So what does this bewitching horse lambada have to do with AI?
The thing about dressage is: the horse is the one ostensibly “doing the work,” and is it the horse’s output that is ultimately judged. However, the horse’s footwork reflects largely on its human rider.
Remind you of anything?
To me, this is the same dynamic as the quality of AI output reflecting the specificity and thoroughness of the prompt its given (by a human, for now).
What’s wild is you can actually ask ChatGPT, Claude, or your LLM of choice how you can improve your prompts.
"Look at that horse, look at that horse, look at that horse." - Beyonce
Let’s pause for a moment. You’re probably thinking one of the following things:
"1) Oh hmm. I get it, just haven’t thought of it that way before.”
“2) Cool. How can I make this useful for me?”
“3) I HATE AI”
“4) AI is bad for the environment, so I have zero interest in using it”
“5) Pink Pony Club, I’m gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club…”
And all of these are valid.
Pink Pony Club is never not in my head, so I get it.
Sigh.
Anyway,
Here are my counter-thoughts:
1) Yeah, trippy, right?
2) If anything, I’d look at it like a reminder that it’s worthwhile to take the extra moment to think deeply about the prompt you’re providing the bot, and what context you might be taking for granted that it “gets.” LEARN HOW TO PROMPT. Because you certainly can train them, but you never want to necessarily accept it as a given that they can read your mind. Your LLM won’t be able to read your mind for at LEAST another couple of months.
3) I know honey but she’s not going anywhere so you need to learn to live with her
4) Totally get it and if it’s not a priority for you then more power to you. I wish I could avoid doing anything bad for the environment but in this case I need to understand AI in order to maintain a level of expertise in my industry.
5) I’M GONNA KEEP ON DANCING DOWN IN WEST HOLLYWOOD, I’M GONNA KEEP ON DANCING AT THE PINK PONY CLUB, PINK PONY CLURBBBBB
Anyway, what do you think? Does this analogy resonate?
What would you add?