Generative AI
AI that creates new content — such as text, images, audio, or code — by learning patterns from large amounts of existing data.
Generative AI refers to systems that produce new content rather than just classifying or sorting existing data. Give it a prompt and it can write an essay, draw a picture, compose music, or generate code.
It works by learning statistical patterns from enormous datasets using deep learning, then using those patterns to generate plausible new output. The large language models behind chatbots are a leading example, generating text one piece at a time.
Generative AI is powerful but has well-known limits: it can produce confident-sounding errors (called hallucinations), reflect biases in its training data, and raise questions about copyright and originality. For a full plain-English explainer, see our guide to generative AI.