It’s AI that can generate new content, like text, images, video, music, and speech. Some examples of models that generate text are ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini. Models like MidJourney, Adobe Firefly, and Stable Diffusion can generate images. For generating speech, Eleven Labs is a popular tool. Suno and Udio are models for generating music.
Another type of AI is “discriminative AI.” That’s AI that can classify, predict, or recognize patterns in existing data. Some examples are Netflix’s recommendations for what to watch next and Gmail’s spam filtering.
It’s good to keep these two types in mind when you hear about AI. Is it classifying existing data (like with spam filtering), or is it generating new content (like with ChatGPT)? These are very different types of systems with different strengths and weaknesses.
What is generative AI? (tutorial)