Techniques & Methods
Heuristics
Heuristics are experience-based shortcuts that find good-enough solutions faster than optimal algorithms. In AI search and planning, heuristic functions estimate the cost to reach a goal, guiding search algorithms like A* to find solutions efficiently without exploring the entire search space.
In LLM prompting, heuristic guidelines—"use examples," "specify output format," "ask the model to think step by step"—improve results based on empirical observation rather than formal proof. Heuristics trade guarantee of optimality for tractability.
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Related Terms
Techniques & Methods
Greedy Algorithms
Algorithms that make the locally optimal choice at each step to find a global solution.
Techniques & Methods
Beam Search
Search algorithm that maintains multiple candidate sequences to find high-quality generated outputs.
Core Concepts
Algorithm
A set of mathematical instructions or rules computers follow to accomplish specific tasks.
Techniques & Methods
Prompt Engineering
The discipline of designing input text — instructions, examples, constraints, and context — to reliably steer a language model toward accurate, well-formatted, and intent-aligned outputs without modifying model weights.