Generative artificial intelligence

Generative artificial intelligence or generative AI (also GenAI) is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) system capable of generating text, images, or other media in response to prompts.[1][2] Generative models learn the patterns and structure of the input data, and then generate new content that is similar to the training data but with some degree of novelty (rather than only classifying or predicting data).[3] Generative AI can be either unimodal or multimodal; unimodal systems take only one type of input (for example, text) whereas multimodal systems can take more than one type of input (for example, text and images).[4]

The most prominent frameworks for approaching generative AI include generative adversarial networks (GANs) and generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs).[5][6] GANs consist of two parts: a generator network that creates new data samples, and a discriminator network that evaluates whether the samples are real or fake. The two networks are trained together in a competitive process, with the generator network continually trying to produce better and more realistic samples, while the discriminator network tries to accurately identify the fake ones. GPTs are artificial neural networks that are based on the transformer architecture, pre-trained on large datasets of unlabeled text, and able to generate novel human-like text.[7][8] They use large language models to produce data based on the training data set that was used to create them.[9]

Generative AI has many potential applications, including in creative fields such as art, music, and writing, as well as in fields such as healthcare, finance, and gaming. However, there are also concerns about the potential misuse of generative AI, such as in creating fake news or deepfakes, which can be used to deceive or manipulate people.

Notable generative AI systems include ChatGPT (and its variant Bing Chat), a chatbot built by OpenAI using their GPT-3 and GPT-4 foundational large language models,[10] and Bard, a chatbot built by Google using their LaMDA foundation model.[11] Other generative AI models include artificial intelligence art systems such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E.[12]

Generative AI has potential applications across a wide range of industries, including software development, marketing, and fashion.[13][14] Investment in generative AI surged during the early 2020s, with large companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Baidu as well as numerous smaller firms developing generative AI models.[1][15][16]