The word “engineering” has been so diluted by its application to software job titles that the word on certain contexts has become ambiguous.

“Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings.”

This is Wikipedia’s definition, and I think it is pretty close. But I would add that “process” is a big part of engineering, as is attention to cost, schedule and resources. “Scientific” principles aren’t always required, but math and logic are frequently required.

Software engineering (forget about the job titles) is the well-defined process of using software resources (building blocks) to build and test cost-efficient software systems, on time and on budget.

If prompt language ever gets sophisticated enough to require the development of a system to construct it, then “prompt engineering” might be a thing.

But that would seem to be the opposite of the goal of AI: simplifying the user’s experience with arbitrary prompts (i.e. natural language)?