In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a relevant topic on Brazilian social media. According to research led by Getúlio Vargas in Brazil, titled “Imaginaries about Artificial Intelligence in the Brazilian digital debate” (2024), there were 365,000 posts about AI on Facebook, X, and Instagram between January 1 and May 31, 2024. Of these posts, 41% were classified as optimistic, 7% as pessimistic, and 42% as neutral. I believe these percentages will change as understanding of this subject improves over time.
On certain networks, I observed very optimistic and very pessimistic opinions, especially regarding generative AI (a subset of AI that uses models to create text, images, videos, and other forms of data). For extreme cases, a very useful recommendation: "Beware of the hype!".
I witnessed two discussions that, in my view, could be considered very optimistic and very pessimistic: “How to create a profitable company using only ChatGPT” and “Will AI replace consultants?”
In my view, AI will never replace technical professionals or create a business plan for a profitable company. In most cases, if not all, the important information for decision-making is available in private datasets (for example, market analyses, articles, research, etc.). What we need to keep in mind is that generative AI uses publicly available data to train its models.
A simple example to illustrate my point of view: Consider asking GPT: What are the benefits achieved by companies when using AI in supply chain support? Base your answer on this article: “Cannas, V. G., Ciano, M. P., Saltalamacchia, M., & Secchi, R. (2023). Artificial intelligence in the supply chain and operations management: a multiple case study research. International Journal of Production Research, 62(9), 3333–3360”
The answer will be based on the Abstract of the article. And it should be like that! The remaining information is private and accessing it will require a subscription.
Based on this scenario, I wrote this short article with the intention of improving the understanding of some aspects of the structure of AI. I will address some important concepts: the training process, how machines “understand” words in a given context or how they “see” images. I will start with an overview of AI and then delve into one of the main mechanisms of generative AI: the Transformer, used in models like GPT (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer).
Happy reading!