What is generative AI: all the latest developments of a revolutionizing technology

Oluwatosin Jegede

24 July 2023

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a transformative force in technology. It refers to the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, particularly computer systems. These processes include learning, reasoning, and self-correction, extending their impact across various industries.

Generative AI, a subset of AI, takes this a step further. It’s an exciting tech branch that lets us generate new content swiftly. Based on diverse inputs such as text, images, sounds, or even 3D models, Generative AI produces corresponding outputs. It is like a creative artist in the world of AI, crafting new content out of given data.

Table of Contents

How does it work

Generative AI functions by exploiting neural networks. It identifies patterns and structures within existing data, subsequently producing original content.

An exciting development in generative AI involves varied learning approaches. These models can tap into unsupervised or semi-supervised learning for training. This innovative shift offers organizations a head start, empowering them to harness a vast amount of unlabeled data speedily and with ease. The outcome? Foundation models. These models serve as the bedrock for versatile AI systems capable of performing multiple tasks.

Models like GPT-3 and Stable Diffusion serve as perfect examples of these foundation models, harnessing the immense power of language. Think of tools like ChatGPT, grounded in GPT-3’s technology, where users can create an essay based on a concise text request. In contrast, Stable Diffusion offers a different spin. It enables users to create photorealistic images using just a snippet of text. With generative AI, possibilities stretch far and wide.

How to evaluate generative AI models

When it comes to evaluating generative AI models, three critical elements take center stage: quality, diversity, and speed.

Quality forms the backbone of successful generative AI models. This attribute is paramount, especially in applications with direct user interaction. In speech generation, for instance, substandard quality makes comprehension a struggle. Similarly, in image generation, the target output should mimic natural images to the point of being indistinguishable;

Diversity holds its own importance too. An effective generative model captures the subtle modes in its data distribution, ensuring generation quality doesn’t take a hit. This trait plays a key role in minimizing unwanted biases in the learned models;

Lastly, let’s talk about speed. Numerous interactive applications need fast generation. For instance, real-time image editing demands a brisk pace to seamlessly integrate into content creation workflows. Hence, an impressive generative AI model strikes a fine balance between these three aspects: quality, diversity, and speed.

How to develop generative AI models

To develop generative AI models, it’s crucial to understand the variety of model types available. Each boasts unique attributes, and combining these strengths leads to even more potent models. Here’s a rundown of some common models:

Diffusion models follow a two-step process, adding and then removing noise to and from training data. They require a longer training period than other models but yield high-quality outputs. These models are versatile and can generate new data from random noise, though this process is time-consuming;

Variational autoencoders (VAEs) use an encoder and a decoder to compress data into a dense format. They are efficient in generating new data but produce less detailed outputs than diffusion models;

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) pit a generator and a discriminator against each other. This continuous contest leads to improvements in both until the generated content becomes indistinguishable from real content. GANs are quick and high quality but lack sample diversity;

Transformer networks process sequential data non-sequentially, making them great for text-based generative AI applications. They have self-attention and positional encodings, which help understand input importance and order, respectively. These networks are flexible and can process various types of tokenized data.

Applications of generative AI

Generative AI emerges as a potent tool for reshaping the workflow for creatives, engineers, scientists, and more, with its applications spanning various industries.

In Language, it manifests primarily as large language models (LLMs), capable of tasks such as essay generation, code development, translation, and even deciphering genetic sequences.

In the realm of Audio, generative AI models can create songs or audio clips from text inputs, generate sound effects for videos, or even compose custom music.

Generative AI finds ample scope in the Visual domain, where it aids in creating 3D images, avatars, videos, graphs, and other visual illustrations. It contributes to drug discovery through the creation of chemical compound graphs, enhances virtual or augmented reality with realistic images, and even designs logos.

Synthetic data creation is another significant application, helping to train AI models when real data is unavailable, restricted, or insufficient for optimal accuracy. This is achieved through label-efficient learning, reducing labeling costs, and facilitating AI model training with lesser labeled data.

The most popular generative applications

Content creation: The AI algorithms generate original content – from images and videos to text, indistinguishable from human-created content. This capability finds extensive use in sectors like entertainment, advertising, and creative arts;
Improving existing AI systems: Generative AI can enhance the efficiency and accuracy of existing AI systems, such as natural language processing and computer vision. It creates synthetic data for training and evaluating other AI algorithms, thereby amplifying their performance;
Complex data exploration and analysis: The AI can unearth hidden patterns and trends within intricate data sets, providing unique insights that might be missed in raw data analysis. This capability benefits businesses and researchers in gaining a deeper understanding of their fields;
Automation and acceleration: By automating various tasks and processes, generative AI saves time and resources for businesses and organizations, accelerating workflows and boosting productivity.

Generative AI lets us generate new content swiftly

Generative AI, with its potential to create original content and bolster existing AI systems, is becoming a transformative force across various industries. From automating complex tasks to unearthing hidden insights in data, generative AI is a game-changer that enhances efficiency and productivity while opening new avenues for creativity and innovation.

As the technology continues to advance, the applications and benefits of generative AI will only broaden and deepen. Its influence will permeate further into our lives, promising exciting prospects for the future. We stand at the dawn of a new era where AI will not just learn and adapt but also create, innovate, and transform the way we operate in various facets of our lives.