What is generative in generative AI?

In generative AI, the “generative” part refers to the model’s ability to create entirely new content. This content can be various forms of data, including:

• Text: Generative AI can write different creative text formats, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, email, letters, etc.
• Images: Generative AI can create new images, like realistic or artistic photographs of people, places, or objects that never existed before.
• Audio: Generative AI can compose new music or realistic speech.
• Video: Generative AI can create new videos from scratch or manipulate existing ones.

Generative AI models achieve this by learning the underlying patterns and relationships within a large dataset of existing content. This dataset could be a collection of books, images, musical pieces, or any other relevant data type. By analyzing these patterns, the model can then generate new content that is similar to, but not a copy of, the data it was trained on.

Here’s a breakdown of how generative AI achieves this “generative” capability:

1. Learning Patterns: During training, the model ingests a massive amount of data and learns the statistical relationships and patterns within that data.

2. Probability Distribution: The model builds an internal representation of the data as a probability distribution. This distribution captures the likelihood of different elements appearing together in the data.

3. New Content Creation: When prompted, the model uses the learned probability distribution to generate new content. It essentially samples from this distribution, combining elements in a way that is consistent with the patterns it learned from the training data.

4. Iterative Refinement: Generative AI models are constantly evolving. As they are used and generate more content, they can be further trained on this new data, allowing them to refine their ability to produce increasingly creative and realistic outputs.