mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Prompting AI Art: An Investigation into the Creative Skill of Prompt Engineering

arXiv 2303.13534 ↗First posted 13 Mar 2023cs.HCcited by 40

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Abstract (arXiv)

We are witnessing a novel era of creativity where anyone can create digital content via prompt-based learning (known as prompt engineering). This paper investigates prompt engineering as a novel creative skill for creating AI art with text-to-image generation. In three consecutive studies, we explore whether crowdsourced participants can 1) discern prompt quality, 2) write prompts, and 3) refine prompts. We find that participants could evaluate prompt quality and crafted descriptive prompts, but they lacked style-specific vocabulary necessary for effective prompting. This is in line with our hypothesis that prompt engineering is a new type of skill that is non-intuitive and must first be acquired (e.g., through means of practice and learning) before it can be used. Our studies deepen our understanding of prompt engineering and chart future research directions. We conclude by envisioning four potential futures for prompt engineering.

Key facts. Cited by 40 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 13 Mar 2023.

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 8; 2024: 7; 2025: 20; 2026: 5.

40 papers.

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  1. 2023Jailbreaking ChatGPT via Prompt Engineering: An Empirical Studycited by 478
  2. 2023In-Context Impersonation Reveals Large Language Models' Strengths and Biasescited by 154
  3. 2023DP-OPT: Make Large Language Model Your Privacy-Preserving Prompt Engineercited by 56
  4. 2023Using Text-to-Image Generation for Architectural Design Ideationcited by 16
  5. 2024Can Developers Prompt? A Controlled Experiment for Code Documentation Generationcited by 7
  6. 2025Pencils to Pixels: A Systematic Study of Creative Drawings across Children, Adults and AIcited by 6
  7. 2025SketchFlex: Facilitating Spatial-Semantic Coherence in Text-to-Image Generation with Region-Based Sketchescited by 6
  8. 2025POET: Supporting Prompting Creativity and Personalization with Automated Expansion of Text-to-Image Generationcited by 6
  9. 2025Large Language Models and Evolutionary Computation: A Critical Review of Bidirectional Interaction, Automated Algorithm Design, and Co-Adaptive Systemscited by 6
  10. 2023Perceptions and Realities of Text-to-Image Generationcited by 5
  11. 2024Exploring Prompt Engineering: A Systematic Review with SWOT Analysiscited by 5
  12. 2025GenTune: Toward Traceable Prompts to Improve Controllability of Image Refinement in Environment Designcited by 5
28 more
  1. 2025Distribution-Conditional Generation: From Class Distribution to Creative Generationcited by 4
  2. 2025A Self-Conditioned Representation Guided Diffusion Model for Realistic Text-to-LiDAR Scene Generationcited by 4
  3. 2023Exploring EFL students' prompt engineering in human-AI story writing: an Activity Theory perspectivecited by 3
  4. 2023IteraTTA: An interface for exploring both text prompts and audio priors in generating music with text-to-audio modelscited by 3
  5. 2025Expertise elevates AI usage: experimental evidence comparing laypeople and professional artistscited by 3
  6. 2025Prompt Engineer: Analyzing Hard and Soft Skill Requirements in the AI Job Marketcited by 3
  7. 2025Data-Driven Analysis of Text-Conditioned AI-Generated Music: A Case Study with Suno and Udiocited by 3
  8. 2023Cases of EFL Secondary Students' Prompt Engineering Pathways to Complete a Writing Task with ChatGPTcited by 2
  9. 2024Towards Better Understanding of In-Context Learning Ability from In-Context Uncertainty Quantificationcited by 2
  10. 2024Inference time LLM alignment in single and multidomain preference spectrumcited by 2
  11. 2025A Picture is Worth a Thousand Prompts? Efficacy of Iterative Human-Driven Prompt Refinement in Image Regeneration Taskscited by 2
  12. 2025ThematicPlane: Bridging Tacit User Intent and Latent Spaces for Image Generationcited by 2
  13. 2025Towards Effective Prompt Stealing Attack against Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 2
  14. 2025Enhancing Patient-Centric Communication: Leveraging LLMs to Simulate Patient Perspectivescited by 1
  15. 2025DangerMaps: Personalized Safety Advice for Travel in Urban Environments using a Retrieval-Augmented Language Modelcited by 1
  16. 2025Steerable Chatbots: Exploring Personalization Control Interfaces via LLM Activation Steeringcited by 1
  17. 2025An Exploration of Default Images in Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1
  18. 2026Are Semantic Networks Associated with Idea Originality in Artificial Creativity? A Comparison with Human Agentscited by 1
  19. 2026AttentionBender: Manipulating Cross-Attention in Video Diffusion Transformers as a Creative Probecited by 1
  20. 2024Automating Creativitycited by 0
  21. 2024Artworks Reimagined: Exploring Human-AI Co-Creation through Body Promptingcited by 0
  22. 2024Play Me Something Icy: Practical Challenges, Explainability and the Semantic Gap in Generative AI Musiccited by 0
  23. 2025"I made this (sort of)": Negotiating authorship, confronting fraudulence, and exploring new musical spaces with prompt-based AI music generationcited by 0
  24. 2025VisuCraft: Enhancing Large Vision-Language Models for Complex Visual-Guided Creative Content Generation via Structured Information Extractioncited by 0
  25. 2025Stable diffusion models reveal a persisting human and AI gap in visual creativitycited by 0
  26. 2026PromptHelper: A Prompt Recommender System for Encouraging Creativity in AI Chatbot Interactionscited by 0
  27. 2026A Test-time Actor-Critic Approach to News Images Generationcited by 0
  28. 2026Spook the Machine: Gamified Exploration of Human Imagination of Machine Fearcited by 0