Which are the best generative AI tools to use?

The artificial intelligence landscape is evolving rapidly, and we’re starting to see a subset of tools known under the title of generative AI used in everyday life, either by choice or because they are baked into products millions of people use every day.

Big technology firms like Microsoft, Amazon and Google own or have invested heavily in the more popular companies like OpenAI or Anthropic.

There are significant differences emerging between these tools, and it’s helpful to know what is best to use and when so you get the maximum out of them. 

While there are hundreds of tools and services out there (most built from OpenAI’s GPT model), the big four at the moment are OpenAI’s Chat GPT, Google’s Gemini (formerly known as Bard), Athropic and Perplexity.AI, which allows you to use lots of services.

Let’s take a look at each one and see and see the benefits and limitations, which should help you decide which one to use if you’re, say, researching a holiday or writing a letter to the local council. 

The leader in the space for tech and share of mind. Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT stands out for its conversational abilities.

It is specifically designed to understand and generate human-like text, making it an excellent tool for a wide range of applications, from writing assistance to customer support.

More recently, OpenAI launched GPTs (Generative Pre-trained Transformers), which allow users to create and publish their own little apps and tools to help others do a lot of different things that involve text generation or sophisticated analysis—currently a key differentiator for OpenAI. 

Gemini, developed by Google, is another significant player. The tool leverages Google's vast data resources to provide information and answers in a conversational style.

Google has the unique ability to bake AI's functionality into tools like Gmail, Calendar etc, to really focus on the business community. 

Founded by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic is dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence technology with a focus on safety, interpretability and ethical considerations.

The company's goal is to develop AI systems that are not only powerful but also understandable and aligned with human values, ensuring that these technologies contribute positively to society.

Anthropic suffers from one thing unrelated to its product's quality or output—bigger competitors with louder voices and bigger budgets. You could call it small but mighty.

Perplexity focuses on answering questions with precision and depth, making it a valuable tool for research and in-depth knowledge exploration.

While specifics on what is in the secret sauce (like most AI tools) remains unknown, Perplexity has said that the company utilises more scientific databases.

The tool also allows users who pay £20 a month to choose what language model they want to use, ie, OpenAI’s GPT-4, Anthropic’s Claude etc, which can be extremely useful and save a lot of time, although the interface can a little confusing for novice users.

However, the basic tool does well at most tasks. 

So, which tool should you use? More than one is the simple answer, if only to see how the same input can get you wildly different answers.

Relying on a single AI tool can be risky. Each tool has its strengths and weaknesses, while many are free to use, play around and see what you prefer.

Eventually, each tool will have a core user base, but experts expect people to jump from tool to tool for a while yet because the tools are cheap and the results are solid when checked.

Using multiple tools ensures you get the best of all worlds and you can cross-verify facts. Anthropic and Perplexity slightly pipped both Gemini and ChatGPT for a research test, but all were close. 

As AI increasingly becomes a part of your life, whether you use it or not, know that others will use tools to determine email responses, social media content, reports and data analysis that impact you.

Understanding the nuances of different AI tools is essential, and we’ve only looked at the main ones here. There are lots more options out there from smaller, open-source companies too, which also have big advantages and disadvantages.

Be careful with what data you share with any AI tool, as what you put can be used to train their models further if you don’t opt-out.

ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic, and Perplexity each offer unique advantages and drawbacks. Using a combination of these tools, you can leverage generative AI more confidently and effectively, ensuring you have the right tool for the right task.

As with a lot of technology out today (and tomorrow!), staying informed and adaptable is critical to harnessing its full potential for your goals, however complex or straightforward.