The Problem with ChatGPT "Experts"
1 week ago
Scroll through LinkedIn for five minutes and you'll find them: self-proclaimed "AI experts" who discovered ChatGPT six months ago and now charge $500/hour for "prompt engineering consulting."
The Expertise Inflation
The barrier to entry for calling yourself an AI expert is approximately zero. You don't need credentials, experience, or even a track record of results. You just need confidence and a good content strategy.
This creates a problem: the loudest voices aren't always the most knowledgeable.
What Real Expertise Looks Like
Actually useful AI knowledge comes from:
- Building real things. Not just playing with demos—shipping products that use AI in production.
- Understanding limitations. Knowing when not to use AI is just as important as knowing when to use it.
- Domain expertise. AI is a tool. Without deep knowledge of the problem you're solving, you're just guessing.
The Prompt Engineering Myth
"Prompt engineering" has become the phrenology of the AI age. Yes, prompts matter. But treating it as a specialized skill worthy of its own job title is overselling it.
Good prompts come from clear thinking. If you can explain what you want to a junior employee, you can write a good prompt. It's not magic.
What Actually Matters
Instead of chasing prompting tricks:
- Learn the fundamentals. Understand how these models work at a basic level.
- Build projects. Nothing teaches like actually shipping something.
- Stay skeptical. If advice sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The best AI practitioners I know don't call themselves AI experts. They call themselves developers, designers, or business owners who happen to use AI when it makes sense.