Recently I volunteered to give an online talk on AI and Creativity for MacFest, a community arts festival in Manchester, UK. It was a pleasure to be joined by Samir Malik, an acclaimed artist and calligrapher as we explored ideas on creativity and the influence of artificial intelligence technologies. Thanks to Qaisra Shahraz and the MacFest team, and Alan Wareham for his moderation and kind introduction.
I decided to include a basic introduction on how generative AI using large language models like ChatGPT works for text and images.
The talk evolved into this article, written as an introduction to contemporary artificial intelligence for mid-career engineers. It explains how LLMs and generative AI work for text and images. It also explains their limitations and future prospects.
Most readers likely graduated long before the November 2022 release of ChatGPT set off the current surge of interest in AI. The article should help understand this so-called revolution and evaluate the mostly unfounded claims that we see in popular media.
Expert readers: I invite you to send me corrections and improved descriptions, or aspects of the technology that I have missed.
Non-experts: Please feel free to tell me what’s unclear or needs more careful explanation.
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