This introductory section explores the emergence of generative artificial intelligence and its reception among the society. GenAI per se may not be new, but the preponderance of chatbots and tools based on large language models and machine learning is a phenomenon of recent years, met with hope and fear in equal amounts. As GenAI continues to be underexplored and therefore often misunderstood, the prolegomenon will set the scene for a comprehensive discussion in the following chapters.