What is generative AI?
Generative AI is an artificial intelligence (AI) system that generates text, images, or other media based on prompts. Generative AI models learn patterns and structures in input training data and then generate new data with similar characteristics. Some well-known generative AI systems include ChatGPT (and its variant Bing Chat), a chatbot built by OpenAI using their GPT-3 and GPT-4 base big language models, and Bard, a chatbot built by Google using their LaMDA base model. Other generative AI models include AI art systems such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E.
What are the benefits of generative AI?
Generative AI may bring a lot of excitement and uncertainty, but one thing is clear: Its most realistic role will be a prosthetic limb for the brain, enabling executives and professionals to expand their horizons — not to mention their schedules.
"Our research found that the biggest benefit of generative AI is increased human productivity," said Allison Horn, managing director of talent and organization consulting services at Accenture. "We estimate that up to 40% of working time will be augmented or automated by generating AI." This time savings, she says, will manifest itself in a number of areas: "From consultants and creative partners, to coding, securing and automating processes." From always-on advisors putting new intelligence in people's hands, to creative partners offering new ways to reach and engage audiences. ”
Another way to look at it is to recall the days of the decline of manual slide rules. (Watch the movie Apollo 13 and see them at their best moment.) "One analogy of AI I've been considering — at least for generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT — is that they're kind of like 'writing calculators,'" said Kevin Tate, chief marketing officer at Clearbit. "We all learn long division in school – it's important to learn how to do math so you can understand the basic concepts. But in everyday life, everyone just uses a calculator because it is impractical not to do so.
How does generative AI work with humans?
Generative AI not only saves time, but also acts as a trusted assistant. "For high-value tasks where accuracy is critical, AI will be most effectively deployed in co-pilot or coach capabilities," said Jake Saper, general partner at Emergence Capital and an investor in AI Corporation. "It will provide workers with real-time advice on how best to achieve their goals." It will learn from how humans approach recommendations, business outcomes, and will use that data to improve recommendations from everyone else in the network. At Emergence, we call it the Coaching Network.
The vast majority of future executives or careers "are more likely to be influenced or enhanced by some of AI's time-saving capabilities," Tate said. "For example, teams made up of salespeople, content creators, or business operations managers won't 'cease to exist,' but they may be smaller, more efficient teams — they spend less time doing repetitive, administrative work.
That doesn't mean executives suddenly have so much free time (40%) to go home and relax. With the advent of AI, perhaps paradoxically, there will be more demand to stay aligned with the organization and move in the right direction — and in an innovative direction. "Analytical thinking and creative thinking are the most important skills," Horn said. "Now, how these skills can be applied to the future of work will continue to adapt, but the role of humans as thought partners will remain the same."
What are the application areas of generative AI?
Generative AI has a wide range of applications, covering a wide range of industries such as art, writing, software development, healthcare, finance, gaming, marketing, and fashion. In these areas, generative AI can help people create new content, improve efficiency, solve problems, and even inspire. Here are some specific application examples:
- Art: Generative artificial intelligence can generate images, music, paintings and other works of art according to natural language prompts, such as DALL-E can generate various styles of images according to text descriptions, Stable Diffusion can generate original music according to musical style and emotions, and Midjourney can generate personalized spatial art according to users' preferences and scenes.
- Writing: Generative AI can generate text content according to the theme, style, length and other requirements, such as ChatGPT can have a natural conversation with the user, Bard can generate stories, poems, lyrics, etc. according to the user's input, GPT-4 can generate code, summary, comments, etc. according to the user's needs.
- Software development: Generative artificial intelligence can automatically write code according to the user's needs and specifications, such as GitHub Copilot can generate code snippets according to the user's comments or function signatures, CodeGuru can provide optimization suggestions and bug fixes according to the user's code, and Codota can provide code completion and IntelliSense according to the user's programming language and environment.
- Medical: Generative AI can generate diagnostic reports, treatment plans, drug design, etc. based on medical data and knowledge base, such as DeepMind Health can identify diseases and provide treatment recommendations based on medical images, Insilico Medicine can generate new drug molecular structures based on drug targets and attributes, and IBM Watson Health can generate personalized treatment plans based on patients' medical records and clinical guidelines.
- Finance: Generative artificial intelligence can generate investment strategies, risk assessments, financial reports, etc. based on financial data and market dynamics, such as AlphaGo Zero can predict market trends and develop trading strategies based on stock prices and trading volumes, Kensho can analyze its impact on the market and provide investment recommendations based on financial events and news, and Narrative Science can automatically generate financial reports and analysis based on financial data.
- Games: Generative artificial intelligence can generate game content, characters, scenes, etc. according to game type and player preferences, such as OpenAI Playground can generate text adventure games based on user input, Ubisoft La Forge can generate dynamic game worlds and tasks based on user behavior and feedback, and Nvidia GameGAN can generate similar game screens and logic according to user actions and screens.
- Marketing: Generative artificial intelligence can generate marketing content, advertising slogans, recommended products, etc. based on user portraits and behavioral data, such as Persado can generate attractive marketing copy according to users' emotions and interests, Phrasee can generate personalized email topics and content according to users' preferences and feedback, and Amazon Rekognition can analyze their emotional response to ads and provide optimization suggestions based on users' facial expressions and gestures.
- Fashion: Generative artificial intelligence can generate clothing design, matching schemes, fitting effects, etc. according to fashion trends and user preferences, such as Stitch Fix can generate personalized clothing recommendations according to the user's style and size, Zalando Creative AI Lab can generate novel clothing designs based on user input or pictures, and Modiface can generate realistic makeup trial effects according to the user's facial features and makeup preferences.