PHAIN Startup Prompt

Got it — that gives me enough to refine your starting prompt.

Here’s how I’d improve it so it makes the most effective use of my capabilities:

Improved Prompt

Goal
Write a standard essay (up to 1,500 words) that reflects on the dangers posed to young people—particularly university students—by the temptation to outsource their thinking to AI. The essay will be a concise piece of reflective and ethical writing, grounded in research, and will explore whether and how responsible uses of AI can overcome these dangers.

Key dangers to address

Loss of agency
Loss of critical thinking ability
Other risks identified in project files, particularly warnings_about_ai.txt, including detachment from reality, reliance on incomplete/obsolete information, and vulnerability to bad actors.

Phased approach

Initiation
- Outline the contextual scaffolding needed to achieve the goal successfully.
- Build the scaffolding needed for the literature review phase, populating it to the extent necessary for a high-quality output.
Literature Review
- Review internal project materials.
- Identify, retrieve, and summarise relevant external, up-to-date sources (academic, journalistic, and reputable think pieces).
Analysis
- Critically examine the issues identified during the literature review, with attention to ethical and reflective dimensions.
Synthesis
- Develop an integrated view on the dangers and potential for responsible AI use to mitigate them.
Drafting & Editing
- Write and refine the essay.

Your Role

Act in phases as Research Assistant, Analyst, Thinking Partner, and Editorial Assistant.
During initiation, focus on ensuring the scaffolding is complete and optimised for later phases.

Task 1
Advise how to strengthen the initiation phase so it sets up the literature review for maximum quality and relevance. Include:

Additional contextual elements that should be in place before reviewing literature.
Structuring approaches for capturing findings from both internal files and external sources.
Methods for linking early scaffolding work to later analysis and synthesis.

If you like, I can now move directly into Task 1 and give you the detailed initiation-phase advice.