WTF is… generative AI?

An explainer

Generative AI does what it says on the box – it generates words, images, music, video and more.

TL;DR

When you hear about AI being used to write emails and academic papers or create images it is Generative AI at play. By learning to recognise patterns and relationships in data the AI system is able to generate new content. See how through cute cat pictures! 😸

Undoubtledly doubt you’ve heard the term ‘Generative AI’ mentioned recently. But what actually is it?

I could get very technical but let’s start simpler. It’s called generative AI because it generates new content. {And don’t let me hear you calling it Gen AI, because that just sounds stupid!} Using artificial intelligence (AI), it creates text, images, music, videos and computer code in response to a prompt inputted by someone.

Don’t let terms like ‘prompt engineering’ and ‘roles’ like ‘prompt architect’ bamboozled you – a prompt is just an instruction given by a user that initiates an action and response by an AI system. They are often a written statement or question, but can also include images, or a combination of both. They are a fundamental part of how generative AI works and how well-crafted they are goes a long way to matching AI outputs with a user’s expectations.