A generative adversarial network (GAN) is a class of machine learning
frameworks and a prominent framework for approaching generative artificial
intelligence. The concept was initially developed by Ian Goodfellow and his
colleagues in June 2014. In a GAN, two neural networks compete with each other
in the form of a zero-sum game, where one agent's gain is another agent's
loss.
Given a training set, this technique learns to generate new data with the same
statistics as the training set. For example, a GAN trained on photographs can
generate new photographs that look at least superficially authentic to human
observers, having many realistic characteristics.