Attempts at communicating what generative artificial intelligence (AI) is and what it does have produced a range of metaphors and analogies.

From a " black box " to " autocomplete on steroids ", a " parrot ", and even a pair of " sneakers ", the goal is to make the understanding of a complex piece of technology accessible by grounding it in everyday experiences – even if the resulting comparison is often oversimplified or misleading.

One increasingly widespread analogy describes generative AI as a "calculator for words". Popularised in part by the chief executive of OpenAI, Sam Altman , the calculator comparison suggests that much like the familiar plastic objects we used to crunch numbers in maths class, the purpose of generative AI tools is to help us crunch large amounts o

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