# The generative AI revolution has begun—how did we get here? | Ars Technica

<https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/the-generative-ai-revolution-has-begun-how-did-we-get-here/>

- Host: [arstechnica.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/arstechnica.com/)
- Saved: February 2, 2023 (2023-02-02T15:36:56Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/69f0665574cf/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/69f0665574cf.json

## What Jamie wrote

Great article summarizing what got us so many advances in AI so quickly. What was the key enabling technology, as well as the approaches that allowed such quick progress.

> To sum up, the breakthrough with generative image models is a combination of two AI advances. First, there's deep learning's ability to learn a “language” for representing images via latent representations. Second, models can use the “translation” ability of transformers via a foundation model to shift between the world of text and the world of images (via that latent representation).

I found this interesting because it helps frame up domains that are more or less appropriate for these AI models. If you lack a similar structure in a domain, pursing an AI solution to work with it is going to be very difficult.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT240: Weekly Thing #240 / Shapes, Tags, Ubiquity](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/240/), Notable

## Same host

- [Risk of diabetes rises 58% after COVID, even amid omicron, study finds | Ars Technica](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/3ceb18f94af2/) (arstechnica.com, February 23, 2023)
- [Microsoft unveils AI model that understands image content, solves visual puzzles | Ars Technica](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/3162953f10ad/) (arstechnica.com, March 2, 2023)
- [LastPass says employee’s home computer was hacked and corporate vault taken | Ars Technica](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/d7156ca14318/) (arstechnica.com, March 2, 2023)
- [Tesla workers shared images from car cameras, including “scenes of intimacy” | Ars Technica](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/c35ca3bea4c3/) (arstechnica.com, April 13, 2023)
- [Landmark crypto rules make exchanges liable for customer losses in EU | Ars Technica](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/d4af2fa1d91c/) (arstechnica.com, May 23, 2023)

## Saved the same week

- [Inside CNET’s AI-powered SEO money machine - The Verge](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b758688f457b/) (theverge.com, February 2, 2023)
- [Crypto Theses for 2023 | Gravity Fund](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/af266f040f72/) (gravityfund.vc, February 2, 2023)
- [The Magic of Small Databases](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/020efaa3df94/) (tomcritchlow.com, February 2, 2023)
- [Pluralistic: Tiktok’s enshittification (21 Jan 2023)](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/253b752a1fd1/) (pluralistic.net, February 2, 2023)
- [Tag Systems](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/5708ec15d35b/) (buttondown.email, February 2, 2023)

## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/the-generative-ai-revolution-has-begun-how-did-we-get-here/