Generative AI
AI that creates new things: text, images, music, video or code.
In everyday terms
Older AI mostly sorted or predicted ("spam or not?"). Generative AI produces new content in response to a prompt.
For professionals
Models that learn a data distribution and sample from it: autoregressive LLMs for text, diffusion models for images and video.
Think of it like…
Earlier AI was a judge picking winners. Generative AI is an artist making something new.
You've already seen it
ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney, image generation in design tools, AI music apps.
Myth vs reality
Myth: Generative AI copies and pastes from the internet.
Reality: It produces new combinations based on learned patterns, though it can occasionally reproduce memorised text.
Quick check
Which task is generative?
- Flagging fraud
- Writing a poem from a prompt
- Sorting photos
- Detecting spam
Show answer
Writing a poem from a prompt: It creates new content.