Traditional AI: The Dependable Specialist
Think of traditional AI like that coworker who’s absolutely brilliant at their specific job but completely lost if you ask them to do anything else. Need someone to analyze sales data? They’re your person. Want help planning the office party? Find someone else.
These systems need constant babysitting. Every new task requires new training, new data, new everything. They’re specialists through and through.
Gen AI: The Creative Chaos Machine
Gen AI is like that friend who can somehow fix your motorcycle, cook an amazing dinner, and help you write your dating profile all in the same evening. It’s versatile, creative, and constantly surprising you.
But—and this is important—it’s not always accurate. I asked ChatGPT about my hometown’s population once, and it was off by about 50,000 people. Traditional AI might be boring, but it’s usually right. Gen AI can be brilliant and completely wrong at the same time.
The Ethics Headache
Both technologies come with problems. Traditional AI can be biased (I read about hiring software that discriminated against women). Gen AI creates brand new nightmares—deepfakes, copyright issues, and the whole “is this real or fake?” dilemma.
I saw a presentation last month where they showed photos of people who don’t exist. Completely AI-generated faces that looked absolutely real. Cool technology, but also kind of terrifying.