1. What is generative AI?
Hello! I'm Carl and I'll be your instructor for this course on generative AI for business.
2. (Generative) Artificial Intelligence
Before investigating how Generative AI is revolutionizing industries, let’s define some key terms. AI, or artificial intelligence, is a branch of computer science that enables computers to perform tasks that require human intelligence.
Generative AI is a sub-branch of AI that enables machines to create like humans. Generative AI isn't just a buzzword. It's an essential tool that is reinventing the way businesses function, forging novel pathways for creativity and innovation.
3. Machines that create - Juvenile Artist
The idea of machines that can create is not new. Juvenile Artist, an 18th century robot could already draw picture. Machines like Juvenile Artist however were hard-coded to follow instructions, meaning it would create the same image over and over again. There is no room for real creativity.
4. "Creativity is the art of concealing your sources"
French fashion designer and businesswoman Coco Chanel said that “creativity is the art of concealing your sources”. Enter generative AI.
5. How it works
First of all is it important to know that a model needs to be trained by giving it a large amount of input data.
Once trained, you can interact with a generative AI model by prompting. Let's have a deeper investigation by looking at an example.
6. An example
Let’s say the data consists of impressionist paintings and their text descriptions. The key features in the paintings may be the use of bright colors, focusing on the outdoors, and thick and short brush strokes.
7. An example
Once trained, we can prompt the model with a text description, and the model will create an impressionist painting based on the prompt. Here you can see the result of "a starry night".
8. An example
Let's provide another input: "A cloudy night". We get a totally different painting! Did you know that we created "cloudy night" using the generative AI prompt, but that "a starry night" is a world-famous painting from van Gogh? Did you spot the difference?
9. Images are not everything
Generative AI can be trained on any type of content, be it images, text, or video. When prompted it can generate new content in the style of the training data. Here is some poetry written by the famous generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT.
It's a fusion of art and science. But how does this translate to the business world?
10. Business applications
Generative AI is becoming an integral part of our day-to-day work. Generative AI will be transformational for both daily operations and strategic initiatives. We'll go deeper into the various business applications later in this course, but let's start with a few examples.
Generative AI can help deliver personalized service and care to each of your customers. It can also function as an assistant to help software developers write code so they can focus on problem-solving.
From a strategic point of view, an AI assistant could help summarize a large and technical document for the executive team. It could also review products and their competition, and help design a new generation of products.
11. Will we be replaced?
Does this mean we will be replaced by robots? Not quite. Generative AI is our ally and our collaborator. Gary Kasparov, the chess master, famously lost to IBM's supercomputer, Deep Blue in 1997.
Today, many chess players use AI assistants to train and analyze their games to propel their skills to the next level.
Similarly, generative AI can deliver powerful results when used with human oversight.
12. Our goals
In this course we will learn the key concepts of generative AI. We will explore how it can enhance current business workflows and how we can navigate the legal and ethical issues of using generative AI.
Finally, we will look at how to prepare for future development in this field.
13. Let's practice!
Let’s delve into some exercises!