If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the talk about AI, you’re not alone. Every day seems to bring a new tool, a new feature, or a new reason why you should be using artificial intelligence in your business. But here’s the thing: before you jump in, it’s worth understanding what you’re actually dealing with.
Let me break down the different types of AI you might come across, and more importantly, help you figure out what you might already be using without even realising it.
Generative AI: the content creators
You’ve probably heard of ChatGPT, Claude, MidJourney or a range of other tools that seem to pop up weekly. Maybe you’ve tentatively tried it yourself. This is generative AI, and it’s become incredibly popular over the past couple of years. These tools create new content for you, whether that’s text, images, or even audio.
They learn from masses of data and information input into their underlying models, building up knowledge based on that data. This is then used to answer your questions or create content based on your prompts. Think of it as having a very well-read assistant who can write, design, and create on demand.
The key here, though, is the requirements for data and where that data comes from – simply put, whenever data is added to the tool, it MAY use that data to train its model. It is important to check the terms and conditions to ensure you understand how your chosen tool will use the data.
Some of these tools use the content you put in for your projects to train their models. That means your business information, your customer data, or your brilliant ideas could end up appearing in someone else’s responses.
This is why I always tell clients to check what happens to their data before they start using any generative AI tool. It’s not about being paranoid; it’s about being smart with your business information.