Why Generative AI is a useful fad but not at all intelligent…

Nick Ayton
15 min readAug 5, 2023

A quick guide to what Generative AI is and isn’t.

When I talk to people that have discovered and started using #ChatGPT and other tools, you would think they’ve found the elixir of eternal life. They say, ‘Nick why are you not excited, you don’t get it, this changes everything!’ You can imagine my answer.

There is a lot of general misunderstanding about #GenerativeAI and #AI #artificialintelligence in general, what it is, how it works and the pitfalls and issues, and so this article may help lay out the landscape, describe the underlying tech, what it is and is not, the structures, backends and the platforms.

There are now dozens of Generative AI systems, platforms, tools, products from US and many forget from China, huge companies not mentioned much. And yes I wrote this article on my own using my own creativity, grammar mistakes, oddities of my own style.

Why?

Because if you ask an AI to write an article IT IS NOT YOURS…

Although proving ownership in some ways will be almost impossible, the point is made. The generating part uses data and source material not identified or known — ‘caveat venditor’.

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Nick Ayton

Nick Ayton is a Polymath, Technologist, Filmmaker, Writer, Speaker