Generative AI in Practice

2TRACING THE EVOLUTIONARY BLUEPRINT OF GENERATIVE AI

We've reached the point where AI is no longer just an executor of tasks or a decision-making tool, but also an inventor. This is an age where AI can be a creative companion, capable of producing original outputs that can inspire, assist, and even amaze us. In the next chapter, we'll look at how this development will shape our world. But to navigate the future of GenAI, we need to understand its past. How did we get to this point? How far back do the roots of GenAI stretch? (You might be surprised to discover just how far.) And how is GenAI's evolution inextricably linked with other fast-developing technologies?

Come with me as I take you on a tour through the history of GenAI, and explore the key milestones that have brought us to this point.

1950s–1990s: The Early Years of AI

Scientists and researchers first introduced the concept of AI and machine learning in the 1950s, which goes to show that humans have been fascinated by the concept of intelligent machines for a long, long time.

The promise of AI takes root

British mathematician, logician, and computer scientist Alan Turing devised the “Turing Test” in 1950 – a method for determining whether a computer can demonstrate human-like intelligence. The test goes like this: a human evaluator engages in a natural language dialogue with an unseen partner – which could be a human or a computer – and if the evaluator cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine ...