Learn more about generative AI

A defined procedure, or set of rules, used in mathematical or computational problem solving to complete a particular task.    

A branch of computer science dealing with the ability of computers to simulate intelligent human behaviour.

Any pre-learned attitude or preference that affects a person’s response to another person, thing or idea. In the context of AI, it commonly refers to a chatbot’s reflection of bias present in its training data (namely, the internet) in its responses to users’ queries.    

An accumulation of a data set so large that it cannot be processed or manipulated by traditional data management tools. It can also refer to the systems and tools developed to manage such large data sets.    

Chat-GPT 4 is the newest version of Chat-GPT (the first  publicly available generative AI chatbot) from Open AI released in March 2023.

It has various models, with the more advanced ones requiring a subscription to use. However, it is now possible to experience ChatGPT without having to sign up to an account.

If you do not want any of the data that you input to be used to teach the model going forward, you can opt out if you don't have an account by clicking the '?' icon in the bottom right of the ChatGPT interface as demonstrated at the link above.

A generative AI chatbot developed by Anthropic.    

A generative AI chatbot developed by Microsoft 

A generative AI tool that produces images in response to text prompts. Developed by OpenAI.

The practice and process of analysing large amounts of data to find new information, such as patterns or trends.    

A process in data classification and categorisation in which digital ‘tags’ are added to data containing metadata. In the context of generative AI, training data for Large Language Models is tagged by humans so the AI can learn whether to include or exclude it from its responses. This may be to comply with legal requirements or ethical and moral codes.    

A subset of machine learning that works with unstructured data and, through a process of self-correction, adjusts its outputs to increase its accuracy at a given task. In the context of AI, this process is closely related to reinforcement learning. Generative artificial Intelligence – Generates new content from existing data in response to prompts entered by a user. It doesn’t copy from an original source but rather paraphrases text or remixes images and produces new content. It learns via unsupervised training on big data sets but does not reason or think for itself.    

A type of AI that has the ability to produce or generate new data or content, such as text, computer code, images, or sound. It works by analysing vast amounts of existing data from web pages and other online content, looking for patterns in the data. For example, it would learn that certain words tend to follow others.

The AI then looks at the prompt a user has entered and based upon the data it was trained on, predicts the response.

A generative AI chatbot developed by Google.    

Answers from generative AI chatbots that sound plausible but are untrue or based on unsound reasoning. It is thought that hallucinations occur due to inconsistencies and bias in training data, ambiguity in natural language prompts, an inability to verify information, or a lack of contextual understanding.    

A video-based generative AI tool

A specific type of generative AI that specialises in producing natural language. Chatbots such as Gemini, Claude and GPT-4 are examples of LLMs.

A generative AI tool that produces images in response to text prompts. Developed by MidJourney, Inc.   

Free functionality is pretty limited. To get the most use out of the tool, you will need a monthly subscription.

 The capacity of computers to adapt and improve their performance at a task, without explicit instructions, by incorporating new data into an existing statistical model.    

The analysis of natural language by a computer. It is a field of computer science that takes computational linguistics and combines it with machine and deep learning models to allow computers to understand text and speech and respond accordingly. Voice-activated “smart” technologies and translation software are two of many everyday uses for NLP.

A computing architecture, or machine learning technique, where a number of processors are interconnected in a manner inspired by the arrangement of human neurons; they can learn through a process of trial and error.    

A data analysis method that uses machine learning to recognise patterns, or regularities, in big data.

A generative AI chatbot. 

A piece of software that enhances the ability of a larger system or application to fulfil a specific task, e.g. a referencing plug-in on a web browser can pull the metadata from a webpage into a reference management system to create a bibliographic entry.