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Generative AI
ChatGPT and Generative AI – why NOW is the time to understand them?
In 2023, AI evolved from something that some considered science fiction to an increasingly real technology that almost anyone can use. The group of users experimenting with GenAI tools is expanding rapidly. It is possible thanks to the concept of democratisation of AI, which involves moving AI applications beyond the world of experts and making their potential available to a broader audience. Keep reading to find out how this trend will impact access to knowledge in 2024.
Until recently, AI development, implementation and use were limited to large organisations and technology giants with significant data and competence resources. However, it began to change with the introduction of the first chatbots offering access to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Conversational AI has made it possible for almost anyone to use advanced AI tools, regardless of their technical competence level.
This widespread access to information and AI achievements means that more and more people experience the process of democratisation of knowledge and skills in this field. It enables people to generate ideas they couldn’t create without the tools provided.
The democratisation of AI data and the creation of your ideas are part of the trend of popularising knowledge and providing more comprehensive access to technology
Strategic technology trends for 2024, according to Gartner
In October 2023 Gartner defined Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends 2024, including those that will be considered when making business and technological decisions in the next three years. These trends are not isolated phenomena – they complement and reinforce each other. They include:
This text focuses on developing one of the trends: Democratised Generative AI.
What is the democratisation of artificial intelligence?
The democratisation of AI is the ongoing process of making AI technologies and tools available to an increasingly broader and more diverse group of users who want to start their adventure with this technology.
The aim of democratisation understood in this way is to free intellectual capital from the AI area and remove technical barriers, allowing organisations and people without extensive technological knowledge to use it for their needs.
Similarly, democratic GenAI refers to the availability and use of GenAI tools among a broad audience, regardless of their technical background and resources. As a result, GenAI tools democratise access to knowledge and skills.
The democratisation of AI can, therefore, be viewed in 2 ways:
- As a set of activities aimed at making the world of data science less hermetic and its intellectual capital available to a broader group of recipients.
- As a tool that can democratise access to knowledge and skills, which means that its achievements are spread and become an element of increasingly common awareness.
What is Generative AI?
Generative AI is a field of AI that plays a key role in shaping the future of technology. GenAI will increasingly boldly penetrate our world in ways that are still hard to imagine. Because GenAI is not just a technological trend but a paradigm shift in how we interact with technology and use its tools. Understanding its phenomenon can help you navigate its future.
You can read about the beginnings of GenAI, its essence and its tools here: ChatGPT and GenAI – why NOW is the time to understand them?
By 2026, GenAI will significantly transform 70% of new web and mobile app design and development activities
How AI will democratise access to knowledge in 2024
The democratisation of AI puts its tools in the hands of users without specialised technical knowledge or hard skills, thus ensuring the various benefits and opportunities that this technology brings.
Democratising GenAI tools in everyday life
The widespread availability of GenAI tools levels the playing field in access to information, knowledge and skills, making it the most disruptive trend of this decade.
As a result, today, anyone can start their adventure with AI. Recent updates to ChatGPT have made GPT model customisation accessible to everyone, even without coding knowledge.
GenAI can change your daily life, for example:
- Write your blog posts, generate and debug complex code, tell colourful stories, and discuss almost any topic that comes your way.
- Be your virtual bot that can “work” as personal advisor, assistant or curriculum designer in schools and universities.
- Give you access to creative tools and allow you to discover your artistic expression and become a creator only based on text prompts describing the desired requirements, e.g. custom melodies, photorealistic images or animated videos.
Democratising GenAI across industries and professions
The democratisation of GenAI tools means their increasing use across sectors – from small businesses using AI for marketing and content creation to education – teachers using AI tools for personalised learning experiences.
Artists and designers use them to generate unique visualisations and concepts, while researchers and scientists use them to organise and analyse data and develop hypotheses.
GenAI tools in medicine have made its diagnostic models more perfect than humans.
An interesting phenomenon is the democratisation of GenAI in selected areas of the economy. Industries that have so far been cautious in experimenting with AI, such as agriculture and energy, are increasingly bolder in using its tools. Thanks to GenAI, many anomalies in the industry have also been detected.
Benefits of using GenAI:
- Speedy idea generation across multiple levels, creating the conditions for a fail-fast approach that values testing and incremental development to reduce waste and determine whether an idea has value;
- Short implementation time for marketing new ideas and products;
- Hyperpersonalisation, which involves combining organisational data with GenAI models, creating personalised content tailored to a specific audience.
A natural consequence of democratising access to AI is improving the quality of machine learning models – including those built from scratch by qualified data science specialists and AI experts. Improvements for them include for example, libraries that automate selected activities or cloud solutions.
The impact of democratised GenAI on the future of work
Cloud-based services, open-source models, and GenAI tools available as APIs provide flexible deployment options and make them adaptable to the needs of companies of any size. Trained models can be a ready-made solution to selected problems of a given organisation, as well as a starting point for more complex strategies.
GenAI models enable:
- streamlining existing processes;
- automating manual and routine tasks;
- increasing efficiency.
Benefits for companies
The democratisation of data in the company allows employees access to data, familiarising them with data structures and ways of interpreting and analysing data. By leveraging the democratisation of AI, organisations are allowing their teams to use cutting-edge technology, maximising its potential and achieving more.
Benefits include:
- profitability by reducing costs;
- faster decision-making;
- developing strategies leading to better financial results;
- delivering increasingly higher value;
- driving growth and achieving success.
Benefits for employees
The democratisation of GenAI in a workplace is more than just improvements and business benefits. This technology changes not only the way but also the nature of work and offers employees new development opportunities.
GenAI can:
- provide knowledge and skills that increase employees potential;
- equalise their opportunities and encourages innovation;
- provide the opportunity to generate creative solutions;
- increase team commitment;
- allow the company to connect employees with knowledge in a conversational style.
According to Gartner, by 2026, more than 80% of enterprises will be using GenAI APIs and models in production environments, a significant increase from less than 5% in 2023. This expansion marks a shift towards more inclusive, efficient and innovative business practices.
Risks and challenges of democratising AI
The benefits that the process of democratising AI has brought and may yet bring are enormous. It is essential to remember about the number of risks it carries.
GenAI is a relatively new technology, and it is known that there is still a risk of errors. For example, ChatGPT is known to cite fictitious sources occasionally and is prone to hallucinations.
Creating AI models for content generation or data analysis still requires the knowledge and skills of specialists in the field, which no one can replace.
While we have innovation, cost savings, new revenues, and efficiency improvements on one side of the scale, the risk of manipulation by harmful content, environmental problems, and ethical issues comes on the other.
The key challenges facing the democratisation of AI include:
- safe use of AI-based on clear regulations and ethical standards;
- equipping others with the knowledge necessary to use AI responsibly, effectively and productively;
- undertaking training to fill the data and AI skills gap through training;
- hiring security specialists and engineers to monitor results.
Summary
The democratisation of AI popularises knowledge and makes complex topics more understandable.
Educational materials and contributions from representatives of the technological world play a significant role in this work. They often present even the most intricate issues of GenAI in a very accessible way.
At WEBSENSA, our specialists share their expertise about artificial intelligence on the Beyond AI YouTube channel. If you are interested in GenAI and its implementation in everyday and professional life, we encourage you to follow or contact us.
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