generative AI
In plain wordsAI that produces something new on request, such as an essay, a picture, a song or a piece of code, having absorbed from enormous numbers of existing examples what such things typically look like.
AIartificial intelligence, n.: Computer systems that do things we would normally credit to a thinking mind, such as holding a conversation, reading an X-ray or planning a route, and the field of research that builds them. systems whose output is newly synthesized material (a paragraph, a program, a picture, a voice recording, a candidate drug molecule) rather than a label or score attached to existing data. Underneath are generative modelsgenerative model, n.: A model that learns what a kind of data looks like — faces, sentences, songs — well enough to produce new examples that resemble the originals without copying them., which estimate how their training data are distributed and then draw fresh samples from that estimate, usually steered by a promptprompt, n.: The message or instructions you give an AI system — a question, a request, some examples or a document — that it responds to. Clearer prompts generally get better results.: large language modelslarge language model, n.: A computer program trained on enormous amounts of text to predict the words that come next. At vast scale, that simple skill lets it chat, answer questions, translate, summarize and write code. generate text token by token, while diffusion modelsdiffusion model, n.: An AI that learns to create images, sound or video by practicing noise removal: shown pictures buried under static, it learns to clean them up, then builds new ones starting from pure static. and generative adversarial networksgenerative adversarial network, n.: Two neural networks trained as rivals: one forges fake images, the other tries to spot the fakes. As both improve, the forger's output becomes realistic enough to fool people. generate images and other media. Most current systems are foundation modelsfoundation model, n.: A very large AI model, built once at great cost from vast amounts of text, images or code gathered mostly from the internet, that many products then reuse as their starting point, from chatbots to coding tools. adapted for chat, coding or media generation. The category is contrasted with predictive AIpredictive AI, n.: AI used to forecast outcomes about people or events, such as who will repay a loan, which patient may get sicker or which machine will fail, in order to guide decisions. and discriminativediscriminative model, n.: A model that learns only to tell things apart — spam or not spam, cat or dog — without learning how to produce new examples of those things. systems, though the boundary is blurry: a language model's output is itself a chain of predictions. Concerns specific to generative AI include hallucinationhallucination, n.: When an AI states something false or made up — a fake fact, quotation or source — fluently and confidently, as if it were true., copyright in training data, deepfakesdeepfake, n.: A fake but realistic video, photo or voice recording made with AI that puts words in a real person's mouth or shows them in a scene that never happened. and synthetic mediasynthetic media, n.: Images, video, audio or text created or substantially altered by AI rather than recorded or written directly by people, whether for art, entertainment, business or deception., and displacement of creative work.
The newsroom allows generative AI for drafting headlines but not for writing stories.
Origin
Generative models are decades old in statistics and machine learning, and the phrase 'generative AI' was in occasional use before 2022, for instance for image systems built on GANs (introduced 2014); its first use has not been established. It became a household term in 2022 with text-to-image tools (DALL·E 2, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion), Sequoia Capital's September 2022 essay 'Generative AI: A Creative New World' by Sonya Huang and Pat Grady, and the release of ChatGPTChatGPT, prop. n.: OpenAI's AI chatbot, released free to the public in November 2022, which answers questions, writes and converses in everyday language. Its sudden popularity began the current AI boom. that November.
Usage note
Not to be confused with artificial general intelligenceartificial general intelligence, n.: AI that could learn and do almost any mental task a capable adult can, rather than excelling at one narrow job. Experts disagree on the exact bar and on when, or whether, it will arrive.: 'generative' describes what a system outputs, not how broadly capable it is. The abbreviation GenAI is common in business writing.
Related
- generative modelgenerative model, n.: A model that learns what a kind of data looks like — faces, sentences, songs — well enough to produce new examples that resemble the originals without copying them.
- large language modellarge language model, n.: A computer program trained on enormous amounts of text to predict the words that come next. At vast scale, that simple skill lets it chat, answer questions, translate, summarize and write code.
- diffusion modeldiffusion model, n.: An AI that learns to create images, sound or video by practicing noise removal: shown pictures buried under static, it learns to clean them up, then builds new ones starting from pure static.
- foundation modelfoundation model, n.: A very large AI model, built once at great cost from vast amounts of text, images or code gathered mostly from the internet, that many products then reuse as their starting point, from chatbots to coding tools.
- ChatGPTChatGPT, prop. n.: OpenAI's AI chatbot, released free to the public in November 2022, which answers questions, writes and converses in everyday language. Its sudden popularity began the current AI boom.
- text-to-image modeltext-to-image model, n.: An AI system that creates a picture from a written description, such as 'a fox reading a newspaper, in watercolor', usually within seconds.
- synthetic mediasynthetic media, n.: Images, video, audio or text created or substantially altered by AI rather than recorded or written directly by people, whether for art, entertainment, business or deception.
- AI slopAI slop, n.: Low-quality content churned out in bulk by AI — bland articles, fake-looking images, filler videos — posted to grab clicks or fill space, with little care for accuracy or value.
- predictive AIpredictive AI, n.: AI used to forecast outcomes about people or events, such as who will repay a loan, which patient may get sicker or which machine will fail, in order to guide decisions.
- discriminative modeldiscriminative model, n.: A model that learns only to tell things apart — spam or not spam, cat or dog — without learning how to produce new examples of those things.
- artificial general intelligenceartificial general intelligence, n.: AI that could learn and do almost any mental task a capable adult can, rather than excelling at one narrow job. Experts disagree on the exact bar and on when, or whether, it will arrive.
Sources
- Huang, S. & Grady, P. (2022). Generative AI: A Creative New World. Sequoia Capital, 19 September 2022. sequoiacap.com/article/generative-ai-a-creative-new-world
Defined in law or standards
US Executive Order 14110 (2023; revoked January 2025), §3(p)
Mentioned in
agentic AIagentic AI, n.: AI built to pursue goals on its own — planning, taking actions and adjusting along the way — instead of only responding to one prompt at a time. 'Agentic' describes how much of this independence a system has., AI slopAI slop, n.: Low-quality content churned out in bulk by AI — bland articles, fake-looking images, filler videos — posted to grab clicks or fill space, with little care for accuracy or value., artificial intelligenceartificial intelligence, n.: Computer systems that do things we would normally credit to a thinking mind, such as holding a conversation, reading an X-ray or planning a route, and the field of research that builds them., copilotcopilot, n.: An AI assistant built into software that works alongside a person — suggesting code, drafting text or answering questions — while the person stays in charge, like a co-pilot beside the captain., deep learningdeep learning, n.: Machine learning done with neural networks built from many stacked layers: raw data such as pixels, sound or text goes in at one end, and each layer turns what it receives into something more abstract., physical AIphysical AI, n.: AI built to work in the physical world rather than on a screen: the intelligence inside robots, self-driving cars, drones and other machines that must sense real surroundings and move through them., AI authorshipAI authorship, n.: The question of whether a work or invention produced by AI can be protected by copyright or patent, and if so who counts as its author or inventor: the AI, the person using it, or no one., AI-poweredAI-powered, adj.: Described as using artificial intelligence to work. The label appears on everything from search engines to toothbrushes and often says little about how much AI is really involved., ChatGPT momentChatGPT moment, n.: A phrase for the point when a technology suddenly becomes impressive and widely used, as ChatGPT did in late 2022; people ask when robotics, biology or other fields will get theirs., dead internet theorydead internet theory, n.: The idea, first a fringe conspiracy theory, that much of what we see online is now made by bots and AI rather than by real people., generative artgenerative art, n.: Art in which the artist invents a process — dice rolls, software, written instructions — and lets that process make the work; the phrase now also loosely covers pictures from AI image generators., generative engine optimizationgenerative engine optimization, n.: Shaping web content so that AI chatbots and AI search features are more likely to find it, quote it and recommend it — the AI-era version of search engine optimization., generative modelgenerative model, n.: A model that learns what a kind of data looks like — faces, sentences, songs — well enough to produce new examples that resemble the originals without copying them., Interim Measures for the Management of Generative AI ServicesInterim Measures for the Management of Generative AI Services, prop. n.: China's 2023 rules for chatbots and other AI that generate text, images, audio or video for the public, requiring lawful training data, content controls, labeling and, for many services, government approval before launch., predictive AIpredictive AI, n.: AI used to forecast outcomes about people or events, such as who will repay a loan, which patient may get sicker or which machine will fail, in order to guide decisions., Section 230Section 230, prop. n.: A 1996 US law that generally protects websites and apps from being sued over what their users post, and lets them remove content in good faith. Whether it protects what AI chatbots themselves say is unsettled., synthetic mediasynthetic media, n.: Images, video, audio or text created or substantially altered by AI rather than recorded or written directly by people, whether for art, entertainment, business or deception., workslopworkslop, n.: AI-generated work that looks polished but does not actually get the job done, quietly passing the real effort to whoever receives it, who must then puzzle it out or start over., algorithm filingalgorithm filing, n.: China's requirement that companies register certain algorithms — such as recommendation feeds and chatbots — with the internet regulator, describing what they do and how their risks are controlled., GhiblificationGhiblification, n.: The March 2025 craze for turning photos into pictures in the style of Japan's Studio Ghibli using ChatGPT's new image tool, and the debate it sparked over AI copying artists' styles., Italian brainrotItalian brainrot, n.: A 2025 internet craze of absurd AI-generated creatures with fake-Italian names — such as a shark wearing sneakers — narrated by AI voices and hugely popular with young children., Lovelace objectionLovelace objection, n.: The argument, traced to Ada Lovelace in 1843, that computers cannot be truly creative because they can only do what they have been programmed to do.