Do few-shot examples in a prompt permanently change the model?
Why A is the answer
No, they only guide the response for the current request
Microsoft says this is not learning in the sense of changing the model. It conditions the current inference.
In detail
- Examples only guide the current request.
- The model's weights do not change.
- To change a model itself, you would fine-tune it.
Use case
An illustrative scenario, not a real incident.
A developer adds examples to a prompt, then sends another request without them. The model behaves as before, because nothing changed permanently.
See it in different ways
mindmap
root((Settings))
Temperature
Lower is more consistent
Higher is more varied
Max tokens
Limits reply length
System prompt
Role and rulesflowchart TD
Q{"What changes?"}
Q -->|"Only this request"| A0["Few-shot examples"]
Q -->|"The model itself"| A1["Fine-tuning"]Key point: Prompt examples affect one request only.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. No, because examples are ignored by every model
- Models do use the examples.
- C. Yes, each example is added to the model for all users
- Nothing is added to the model.
- D. Yes, but only for users in the same Azure subscription
- Nothing is shared within a subscription.