Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a part of our technological world for several decades. Still, it did not start to gain mainstream attention until the rise in popularity of generative AI in the early 2020s. Generative AI is only a small subset of artificial intelligence, so it is essential to understand what makes it distinct.
Although generative AI has only recently brought artificial intelligence to the public's attention, traditional AI models have a long and well-established history in our technological existence. As the 2024 article Exploring the Shift from Traditional to Generative AI explained, "From automated customer service bots to recommendation engines on streaming platforms, traditional AI has been working behind the scenes, powering many of the systems we interact with daily" (par. 12). Below are a few common examples of traditional AI:
Artificial intelligence processes and analyzes data to recognize patterns and provide insight. Generative AI takes this capability one step further by taking these data patterns and using them to create entirely new content.
MIT xPro. (2024, October 22). Exploring the shift from traditional to generative AI. MIT Open Learning. https://curve.mit.edu/exploring-shift-traditional-generative-ai
This 17-minute video by Henrik Kniberg walks through the history of generative AI and briefly outlines its function and evolution from traditional generative AI models.
Henrik Kniberg. (2024, January 20). Generative AI in a Nutshell - how to survive and thrive in the age of AI [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/2IK3DFHRFfw?feature=shared
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