algorithms to describe and analyze things, and even to make predictions, GenAI takes in sample data and then creates new data – text, audio, image, video. We could define GenAI simply as data analytics that can make new content for you. Tom: So it’s all in the name, “generative.” It’s going to build things. The efficiency of absorbing and summarizing large amounts of data is what’s really revolutionary for many people and applications. And, as in traditional analytics, with proper supervision GenAI applications can “learn” over time and improve their accuracy and value. A second key feature is that, when we’re working with textual data and language, GenAI can return information in a conversational way. It’s not just the conventional output of data items, tables, and graphs. If I ask a question, GenAI can deliver information in sentences and paragraphs. If I iterate with GenAI, it’s like having a conversation. The information system is finally talking to me

We need to be clear about what GenAI is and maybe more importantly what it isn’t. There are a lot of misconceptions, including attributing to GenAI more capabilities than it actually has. It’s generating new results, but it’s not really intelligent, not really thinking. It’s accumulating and structuring information based on its algorithms and training data.