Introduction
Generative AI, and technologies that implement it like Microsoft Copilot are increasingly in the public consciousness – even among people who don't work in technology roles or have a background in computer science or machine learning. The futurist and novelist Arthur C. Clarke is quoted as observing that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." In the case of generative AI there does indeed seem to be an almost miraculous ability to produce human-like original content, including poetry, prose, and even computer code.
However, there’s no wizardry involved in generative AI – just the application of mathematical techniques incrementally discovered and refined over many years of research into statistics, data science, and machine learning. You can gain a high-level understanding of how the magic trick is done by learning the core concepts and principles explored in this module. As you learn more about the generative AI technologies we have today, you can help society imagine new possibilities for AI tomorrow.