The Rise of Generative AI (and What’s Beyond ChatGPT)

Welcome to the AI Gaze

Have you ever wished you had a really helpful assistant who could summarize a lengthy message, design a logo, remind you of your schedule, or even teach you something new?
That’s the kind of glamor—or magic— Generative AI (GenAI) is beginning to bring into our daily lives and businesses. While the functions of GenAI are far beyond just being a super cool assistant, I still think its ability to help humans is the core reason behind its existence.

Fundamentally, Generative AI refers to models that can produce high-quality, new contents like texts, images, videos, music, code, or even designs.
Unlike traditional AI, which is mostly focused on analyzing and classifying based on existing data (like identifying spam or recognizing trends), GenAI goes further — it can create data that never existed before. These models learn patterns from large and diverse datasets and then “imagine” what similar content might look or sound like.
Sounds fascinating, right? What’s even more impressive is that GenAI can make surprisingly accurate inferences about you, not necessarily based on personal data it was trained on, but from patterns across the internet.

GenAI Examples

Generative AI gained widespread attention in late 2022 with the launch of tools like ChatGPT that quickly became well-known. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the most widely recognized, and GitHub Copilot (for code generation)—common among developers, the revolution extends far beyond. We have also seen the rise of:

• Text & Code: ChatGPT, Claude, LLaMA, DeepSeek, GitHub Copilot

• Image & Video: DALL·E 2, Midjourney, Pika Labs, Sora

• Audio: MusicGen, ElevenLabs

• Content Creation: Jasper AI

What’s Beyond ChatGPT?

While ChatGPT’s conversational abilities sparked widespread imagination, it represents just one subset of the broader generative AI revolution — exciting, right? A lot more lies ahead, which includes:

• Multimodal AI: AI systems that understand and generate multiple data types at once. For example, imagine uploading a picture, asking a question about it, and getting a voice answer in return. OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s Gemini are already multimodal.

• Agentic AI: Beyond simple tasks, AI agents can reason, plan, and act independently. For example, imagine telling an AI: “Plan my trip, book my flights, reserve my hotel, get me a ride, and notify my manager.”
  — And it does all that on its own, with little or no human intervention. Tools like Auto-GPT, BabyAGI, and Open Interpreter are working toward this mind-blowing project

The Ethics: What should we be asking?

As generative AI becomes more powerful and pervasive, the importance of Responsible AI cannot be overemphasized. Key concerns that have sparked major conversations include:

• Privacy: How much personal information is exposed?

• Job Displacement: Which industries are at risk? Are employees at risk?

• Accuracy and bias: Can AI unintentionally reinforce stereotypes or false judgments?

• Patent rights: Who owns these contents created by GenAI?

• Intellectual concerns: Are we becoming dumber or smarter?

Final Thoughts?

As generative AI continues to evolve, its impact will expand to industries we have yet to imagine, reshaping how we collaborate with technology. The real question isn’t just what’s next after ChatGPT — it’s how we ensure AI develops in a way that benefits humanity.

Thanks for Reading

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Coming up next: “Agentic AIs — Are We Creating Autonomous Employees?”
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