First things first. What IS Generative AI?

By the technical definition, Generative AI is an artificial intelligence able to produce different types of content, including but not limited to text, images, audio and various types of data.

Why is this such a big deal? Well, thanks to the leaps and bounds this type of AI has made, there are now many generative AIs of different types and sorts available for just about anyone to take a look at, and create something from it. With a few words, a user can prompt ChatGPT to give them anything from song lyrics that could have been written by Taylor Swift to explaining and sharing snippets of pre-written code.

How does this work? Sounds impossible for a computer to spit out actual creative or technical responses! Generative AI learns by 'training' it is put through by its creators and users. This is especially obvious in art generators. These use neural networks - mathematical systems & algorithms - to find patterns in large sets of data. For example, if you wanted the AI to create an image of a flower, it will use information gleand from multiple sources of information, text and imagery, to create a new image of what it thinks a flower is. The more it learns and the more exposure it has, the better and better that flower is going to look. The gen as all the information, while the user has the imagination. Put the two together, and that's how we're getting all this AI art.