Generative artificial intelligence systems—like ChatGPT and Gemini—create text, images, audio, video, and other content. This Q&A report takes a closer look at the technology behind these increasingly popular systems, and their many uses. The systems are trained to recognize patterns and relationships in massive datasets and can quickly generate content from the data when prompted by a user. These growing capabilities can be used in health care, education, software engineering, business, and other fields. But they can also potentially spread disinformation, displace workers, and present national security and environmental risks.