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AI: Generative Artificial Intelligence

What is AI?

“Generative AI refers to a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that focuses on generating new and original content, such as images, text, music, and even video, that is not explicitly programmed or copied from existing examples. Generative AI models are designed to learn patterns and structures from large datasets and then generate new output based on that learning.

ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI. It is based on the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture, specifically GPT-3.5. It is designed to generate human-like responses to text-based prompts.

ChatGPT has been trained on a wide range of internet text to learn patterns and context from the data. It can understand and generate coherent responses across various topics, engage in conversations, answer questions, and provide information. It has been used in a variety of applications, including chatbots, virtual assistants and customer support systems. (Open AI. 2023).”

(As an illustration, the above content has been generated using ChatGPT and verified for accuracy)

AI: The Good and the Bad

Functions of AI

AI can be a valuable tool with many applications and is already being used in our daily lives. It has applications in e-commerce, healthcare, education and technology.

For example:

  • It is used in voice assistance and facial recognition tools.
  • It can help explain complex subjects and summarize long written works.
  • It can help focus your ideas and improve the style of your writing.
  • It can write code and be used to debug it.

AI systems are powerful enough to perform a wide variety of practical functions and tasks (examples retrieved from NVIDIA, n.d.; Upshall, 2022

Function
 

Example of Tools

*Note: this is not an exhaustive list.

Generate text from a prompt 

“Write a paper on the impact of fake news on education”
“Write a poem about existentialism in the style of Walt Whitman”
“Simplify the following radiology report”

ChatGPT

CopyAI

Jasper

Synthesize information

(e.g., summarize a text, create a procedure from multiple sources)

Scholarcy

ChatGPT

Quillbot

Create an image or digital illustration from a prompt

“A Cubist oil painting of a couple lounging next to a creek”
“A photorealistic image of a half-eaten pumpkin pie”

DALL·E 2

Midjourney

Craiyon 

Stable Diffusion 

Generate computer code

(e.g., generate new code from a comment, fix flawed code)

GitHub Copilot

ChatGPT

Translate text

“Translate the following text from Turkish to English”

Google Translate

ChatGPT

Enhance productivity in teaching and research by assisting with repetitive tasks such as writing, transcribing and suggesting related resources

Grammarly [writing support]

Web of Science Reviewer Locator [suggests peer reviewers]

Transkribus [handwriting transcription for archival documents]

Turnitin [text matching]

"Functions of AI" is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 by Mount Royal University Library.

 

There Is An AI For That allows you to search and browse the universe of AI apps that are available.


Quality of AI Content

Remember to evaluate the content that is the result of an AI generated prompt (question). AI content can be false, incomplete, or completely made up. It is important users are aware of these issues and have the skills to ensure the materials they are using are accurate and reliable.

  • Generative AI responses are based on the data they have been trained to use. If this data has errors, is biased or dated so will the generated response to your prompt (question).
  • When a prompt requires discipline specific knowledge and experience,  AI may return a response that is incorrect, incomplete or generic.
  • AI generators are programed using large data sets that may include copyright protected material without credit.

  • AI uses patterns not logic to return a response to your prompt. It does not check for inconsistencies or truth among the data it presents. AI will sometimes even make up responses - this is known as “hallucination”

When researching a topic, you should always evaluate the information for quality. Keep in mind that not all the information you find online is credible, reliable, or even appropriate for your topic, so it is important to take a closer look at what you are reading. Use the tips below to determine if you should use a particular source for your research assignment. To improve your evaluation skills https://tlp-lpa.ca/research/evaluate-for-quality

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