Tech of the Week: What is Generative AI?

Our new content series #TechoftheWeek helps you understand the new and upcoming technologies of healthcare in a short and simple way. This week’s technology is Generative AI. 

You might have already heard about ChatGPT - the free chatbot that can generate an answer to almost any question it is asked. Developed by OpenAI, and released to the general public in November 2022, it’s already considered the best AI chatbot ever. 

But along with this chatbot, there’s also another phrase that’s been gaining popularity since last year - Generative AI or Generative Artificial Intelligence. Big Think termed this as ‘the technology of the year’ and technology companies just cannot stop talking about it. So what exactly is Generative AI?

What is Generative AI? 

McKinsey defines Generative AI as ‘algorithms (such as ChatGPT) that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos.’ 

The AI uses complex machine learning models to accurately predict the next word based on previous word sequences, or the next image based on words describing previous images. The model needs constant training so the more users use it, the better it becomes. 

GPT-3, for example, was initially trained on 45 terabytes of data and employed 175 billion parameters or coefficients to make its predictions; a single training run for GPT-3 cost $12 million. While it can’t produce video, sound or images yet, it has an in-depth understanding of the spoken and written word. Its dataset is evolving at a rapid speed and once a generative model is trained, it can be “fine-tuned” for a particular content domain with lesser data. 

Generative AI in Healthcare

Recently, Google Research and DeepMind recently introduced MedPaLM, an open-sourced large language model specifically designed to answer medical queries.

It is a generative AI tool designed specifically tailored to the medical field, with the ability to analyze medical language and abbreviations. Beyond understanding language inputs, MedPaLM can also summarize medical records, and identify relevant information within those records. It has been shown to yield results that are on par with a medical expert's judgment. 

MedPaLM has the potential to revolutionize the way medical information is processed and used, making it an invaluable resource for the industry in the future.

You can read more about MedPaLM here.

We will be back next week with another innovative technology that is making waves in the healthcare industry. If you want to know about a specific technology, tell us at [email protected].

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