Artificial Intelligence Explained: What Are Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)?

The field of artificial intelligence (AI) is fast-moving, and new breakthroughs are regularly made. One of the more recent terms rising to prominence is Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) – but what does it mean? The principle behind the GAN was first proposed in 2014, and at its most basic level, it describes a system that pits two AI systems (neural networks) against each other to improve the quality of their results. To understand how they work, imagine a blind forger trying to create copies of paintings by great masters. To start with, he has no idea what a painting should look like – but he happens to have a friend who has a photographic memory of every masterpiece that's ever been painted.