Generative AI vs Conversational AI: What’s the Difference?
Welcome back to our little corner of the internet!
Today we’ll be looking at how Generative AI and Conversational AI are different, as well as what they are and how they work. I’ll also be looking into some of the questions you comment in my upcoming blog posts, so leave a comment if you have a tech-related question that you want to see answered in a short but interesting article! Let’s get started!
To begin with, I’m going to give a brief definition of both types of AI.
What is Generative AI?
You’ve probably heard the phrase Generative AI being thrown around a few times on the internet, and wondered what it meant. The true definition of Generative AI is: AI that is trained to create a multitude of media (this could be audio, video, imagery or text) based on input. This input is usually straight from the user. Generative AI is known for using ML (Machine Learning) algorithms to function.
A common example is when you type input into ChatGPT and it generates text-based content, such as a list of 10 things you can do with AI.
What is Conversational AI?
In simple terms, Conversational AI can replicate human conversation thanks to NLP (Natural Language Processing). NLP allows AI to understand the ways of human language, as well as “interpret, manipulate, and comprehend” it (according to Amazon).
A good example of Conversational AI is your everyday Alexa (or Siri, for that matter). Products like Alexa are programmed to respond with pre-written replies to your commands.
What’s The Difference?
According to iLink Digital, the difference lies in three things: “purpose, functionality, and technology”. Where Generative AI technology’s prime focus is to create unique content through (user) input, Conversational AI is built for interacting in conversations with a human-like tone.
In basic terms, Conversational AI actively responds to user input, whilst Generative AI “generates” (the name is pretty self-explanatory) new content from user input.
The technology behind it is rather different too. Although both fall into “Artificial Intelligence”, Generative AI leverages Machine Learning techniques like GANs (post coming soon mentioning these, so stay tuned) and uses large datasets to merge and blend known content into something new; whereas Conversational AI makes use of NLP, NLU, and NLG, which allow it to understand complex assignments from users.
I hope you found this article helpful and educational. Please do leave a few claps and a comment behind if you enjoyed this one (and if you’re new, leave a follow!) — see you in the next one!
