  Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) possesses the capabilities of
generating realistic data and facilitating advanced decision-making. By
integrating GAI into modern Internet of Things (IoT), Generative Internet of
Things (GIoT) is emerging and holds immense potential to revolutionize various
aspects of society, enabling more efficient and intelligent IoT applications,
such as smart surveillance and voice assistants. In this article, we present
the concept of GIoT and conduct an exploration of its potential prospects.
Specifically, we first overview four GAI techniques and investigate promising
GIoT applications. Then, we elaborate on the main challenges in enabling GIoT
and propose a general GAI-based secure incentive mechanism framework to address
them, in which we adopt Generative Diffusion Models (GDMs) for incentive
mechanism designs and apply blockchain technologies for secure GIoT management.
Moreover, we conduct a case study on modern Internet of Vehicle traffic
monitoring, which utilizes GDMs to generate effective contracts for
incentivizing users to contribute sensing data with high quality. Finally, we
suggest several open directions worth investigating for the future popularity
of GIoT.
