Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence. It uses prompts written in natural language to produce content in a variety of formats, including text, images, video, audio and code (Brunel University Library, 2025).
Generative AI is capable of producing content because it has been trained on large sets of data (Brunel University Library, 2025). For example, Gen AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Claude use Large Language models (LLMs) to both understand and produce human-like text (Gordan, 2025).
Gen AI is used across many sectors of society, including education, academia and industry.
GenAI is a subset of AI. There are many definitions of GenAI, the UNESCO definition provides a useful starting point:“... an artificial intelligence (AI) technology that automatically generates content in response to prompts written in natural-language conversational interfaces (UNESCO,2023).”
Source: UNESCO. (2023). Guidance for generative AI in education and research. Paris.
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