Generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI, GenAI, or GAI) is a subfield of artificial intelligence that uses generative models to produce text, images, videos, or other forms of data. These models learn the underlying patterns and structures of their training data and use them to produce new data based on the input, which often comes in the form of natural language prompts.
Generative AI tools have become more common since the AI boom in the 2020s. This boom was made possible by improvements in transformer-based deep neural networks, particularly large language models (LLMs). Major tools include chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and Meta AI; text-to-image models such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E; and text-to-video models such as Veo and Sora. Technology companies developing generative AI include OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta AI, Microsoft, Google, DeepSeek, and Baidu.
Generative AI has raised many ethical questions as it can be used for cybercrime, or to deceive or manipulate people through fake news or deepfakes. Even if used ethically, it may lead to mass replacement of human jobs. The tools themselves have been criticized as violating intellectual property laws, since they are trained on copyrighted works.
Generative AI is used across many industries. Examples include software development, healthcare, finance, entertainment, customer service, sales and marketing, art, writing, fashion, and product design.