Generative AI Examples and How the Technology Works

In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT for public testing, and over one million people signed up to use the service within the first five days. Many other companies released their generative artificial intelligence (AI) products in its wake. A year later, Reuters reported the service received 140 million visitors in October 2023 [1]. Consumers remain interested in the technology, and companies continue to show their commitment to generative AI through their investments in the space.

In this article, we’ll closely examine two of the leading generative AI apps available to the public, ChatGPT and Bard. We’ll also compare them with a generative AI product designed for business purposes.

How does generative AI work? 

Generative AI utilizes machine learning principles, in which engineers train a model on massive data. Using unsupervised and supervised learning, generative AI can understand and interpret requests and return unique text, images, or audio content to fulfill user prompts.

For example, you could ask a generative AI application like ChatGPT to write a paragraph about the fall of the Roman Empire. The application will then predict what you are looking for based on examples of similar paragraphs within its vast training set. Within a few seconds, the application will generate a new paragraph similar, but not the same, as the examples on which it was trained.

Pros and cons of generative AI

Generative AI can be used in a wide range of industries and to address many different challenges. The technology enables creators to work exponentially faster and can increase productivity.  At the same time, generative AI raises ethical concerns about copyright and the biases hidden in the AI’s training data. Let’s explore some of the advantages and drawbacks of generative AI:

Pros

• Extremely fast creativity and productivity: Generative AI can very quickly create large amounts of written text, design entire presentations, perform translations, generate code, or solve math problems. One of the most evident benefits of generative AI is that it can accomplish tasks much faster than humans with a reasonably high level of accuracy.

• Ably handles many customer service duties: You can use generative AI to create chatbots that can assist customers as readily as a human customer service agent. Unlike humans, generative AI is available 24/7 and scalable so every customer can experience personalized service.

• Fast insights and data analysis: You can use generative AI to comb company data and return insights you hadn’t considered before, such as potential new markets or ways to optimize your spending.

Cons

• Uncovers bias in training sets: Generative AI’s answers can sometimes provide insight into the biases hidden in the information engineers use to train it. For example, journalists found that when asking some generative AIs for a picture of a CEO, they were very likely to receive a picture of a white man.

• Copyright questions remain: Another challenge from the information computer scientists use to train generative AI is who owns the copyright to such information. Some artists have raised legal challenges to generative AI that uses their copyrighted material as training data.

Generative AI examples

Many companies are developing generative artificial intelligence tools for general and specific uses. For example, here are a few companies working with generative AI technology:

• Perplexity AI: This program is similar to ChatGPT or Bard but with a research slant as it cites the sources it uses.

• Soundraw: Soundraw is a Tokyo-based company that generates AI audio for musicians and creators.

• Anyword: Anyword is a generative AI tool for writing content. Its tools help users better understand and write to their audiences and with their brand tone.

• Humata: Humata is a generative AI you can add to your computer, allowing you to speak conversationally with AI that understands, summarizes, and answers questions about your complex documents.

• Tome: This generative AI can help you tell stories and create presentations, websites, and other creative projects.

ChatGPT vs. Bard vs. Jasper AI

The projects previously mentioned are just a few examples of the generative AI industry. To get a better understanding of generative AI examples and how they work, let’s take a closer look at three gen AI products and the companies that offer them: ChatGPT/DALL-E from OpenAI, Bard from Google, and an enterprise solution for companies called Jasper.

ChatGPT / DALL-E 3

ChatGPT is a generative AI program that provides text-based answers. OpenAI, an organization that began as a non-profit company to develop artificial intelligence to serve humanity, developed ChatGPT. OpenAI also created the image-based generative AI DALL-E 3. In October 2023, OpenAI announced an integration between the two programs so users can return image results from a ChatGPT prompt.

What makes ChatGPT unique?

ChatGPT was the first AI chatbot to become a mainstream technology. Although other companies were working on similar projects, ChatGPT was the first to catch viral attention, partially due to technological advancements between ChatGPT-2 and ChatGPT-3 versions. Gathering so much media and consumer attention was valuable for ChatGPT for brand recognition and feedback.

Being the first mainstream generative AI has advantages for ChatGPT but also brings additional challenges. ChatGPT has faced criticism that it can give harmful or inaccurate answers. ChatGPT is facing defamation lawsuits from claimants who say the technology wrote disparaging things about them and copyright lawsuits from content creators claiming ChatGPT stole their intellectual property. While ChatGPT differs from other large language models, the attention ChatGPT is receiving may have implications for the entire artificial intelligence industry. 

Pricing

ChatGPT offers a free service for casual users. For casual users who want prioritized access to the latest version of the chatbot, ChatGPT Plus is available for $20 per month. Additionally, it offers a premium plan based on tokens. Depending on the exact language model you need and how you use it, 1,000 tokens equal about 750 words and cost $0.01 to $0.03 [2].

Google Bard

Bard is the text-based generative AI created by Google. The company released Bard in 2023 to a select group of users before opening it up to the public. Google plans to integrate with Adobe Firefly, an image-based generative AI, to offer a greater range of functionality with Bard. 

What makes Bard unique?

One factor that differentiates Bard from its competitors is that it's a Google product. To provide high-quality images, the company can integrate features from other Google products, such as using Google Lens technology within Bard results.

Google updated Bard’s capability from a large language model called Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) to its newest and more powerful model, PaLM-2, which stands for Pathways Language Model. PaLM-2 added functionality to Bard, such as coding and more advanced reasoning skills. 

Pricing

Bard is a free, experimental service from Google. Unlike ChatGPT, the application does not offer premium or enterprise services. 

Jasper AI

Founded in 2021, Jasper applies generative artificial intelligence to business needs. While the software includes features similar to ChatGPT and Bard, such as the ability to generate text and image responses, Jasper AI further integrates into business systems such as marketing, brand management, and company strategy.

What makes Jasper AI unique?

Jasper differs from ChatGPT or Bard because it’s used differently than the other two gen AI options. Jasper is generative AI explicitly built for business purposes, unlike ChatGPT or Bard, which serve more general purposes. Jasper AI has specific business features like brand voice and style tools, project management capabilities, and analytical abilities.

You can customize Jasper AI to your company's needs if you’re considering using generative AI for business purposes. It’s like having your own generative AI specifically trained on your company data. But if you’re looking for generative AI to help you with everyday tasks unrelated to business, you may prefer using a free service like Bard or ChatGPT. 

Pricing

Jasper does not offer a free service for casual users as an enterprise product. Instead, it has a Creator subscription for $39 a month and a Pro subscription for $59 a month [3]. Additionally, Jasper offers custom pricing for business-level users who need more services adapted to their needs.

Get started in generative AI with Coursera.

Enroll in Generative AI With Large Language Models offered by Amazon Web Services on Coursera to take the next step and learn more about generative AI. This flexible intermediate-level course takes approximately 16 hours to complete, after which you'll have learned skills in machine learning, large language models, and generative AI.