The deal with Generative AI

How a relatively nascent technology is transforming everything we know.

Generative AI, or Artificial Intelligence that ‘generates’ content has been around for a while, in our smartphones, tablets, and computers, albeit in an elementary form. Remember autocorrect and chatbots? But over the last few weeks, with the advent of ChatGPT, a generative AI tool which became a smash hit, opened up avenues which weren’t available before in the public domain. AI has since then, entered our online content, our resumes, our workplaces and our homes, to an extent that it started posing a threat to all of them, but is the fear misplaced? Or is the concern forthrightly accurate?

What is Generative AI, and why is it relevant?

Simply defined, generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that produces a wide variety of data, text, language models, images and audio/video. It has the ability to generate everything which is time consuming or repetitive in a split second and that’s what makes it revolutionary. Since the advent of machines and computing, they have been running on binary command modules, including the recent AI computers. The distinguishing factor, however, is that AI forms neural networks to identify patterns and structures in the data, thereby making routine bean counting tasks not only easier, but also efficient, as good as what a human would do; or maybe better. For these models to be effective, they are trained on an enormous volume of input in the forms of text and images to be able to generate their own. With exhaustive training, the networks become robust and independent to be deployed in assisting almost any task currently being performed on a machine.

It is relevant because it is everywhere, slowly trickling down through our laptops and our phones, Generative AI made its way into everyone’s lives by decentralizing our interactions with the machines. We can access it anywhere. It is also relevant because it is extremely simple to use, on our phones, in our apps, answering our questions, facilitating our searches, making content for us to consume.

This kind of relevance and adoption is what tech dreams are made of!

What is its current status?

Contemporary hype around the capabilities of AI is huge, consequently attracting billions of dollars in investment. Every company, no matter its size, if it is working with machines, is looking to explore and integrate AI. This integration doesn’t bode well for most of the blue collar and a proportion of white collar jobs. Irrespective of its pertinent risks, AI is growing by leaps and bounds, unfazed by the challenges that seem to lie ahead.

With the introduction of ChatGPT which made using AI as simple as opening a text window, consumer side of things picked up. Not only did it single-handedly revolutionise the whole space, it made the focus shift on developing and owning proprietary intelligent software. Be it Google who introduced Bard or Nvidia which attained a trillion dollar valuation riding on the wave, all organizations are trying to adapt to the AI tools.

Times are getting more exciting by the hour.

So what does the future hold?

Intelligence is defined as the ability to acquire and apply knowledge. With intelligent humans training dumb machines to ‘think for themselves’, they are too close to walking a tightrope on the risks involved. The potential of the technology is massive, but then so are the risks. While the current generative form is growing, it does have its share of challenges in terms of accuracy and consumption of resources in order to generate it, among other things. It’s far from the finished product we are expecting to give results; nevertheless it is an immense advantage to have an intelligent fast computing assistant.?

To err is human, and is always human. We need this more than AI needs us, to be more efficient, competent and productive. As the future keeps evolving, so will Generative AI. From currently generating text, data and content, there are endless possibilities of how it can be moulded to assist in almost any task on the planet. From stock markets in finance, to defence strategies in politics, from imagery in art to consulting applications in business, from space exploration to the peeking in the depths of the sea, AI has the capability to permeate and change the world as we know it. And it wouldn’t take a lifetime for it to demonstrate.

The question is, however, not about the ability, but about the permit. How far should it be allowed to stretch? There is a risk of it being a Frankenstein, but what if it’s a genie in a bottle on command?

In the very end, it would be about Generative HI versus Generative AI – Human versus Artificial, the creator versus the creation, the left versus the right brain, the logical versus the emotional, the list goes on. What it can or cannot do is a matter of time and effort, but we as a race, have we ever been afraid of building something just because it is bigger than us? The hype surrounding AI may or may not live in the future, but the technology certainly will.

Just as human beings have no boundaries to their thoughts and imagination, artificial intelligence lacks these limitations too, and for the better.?