Generative AI tools and what they do

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ChatGPT may be the most well-known generative AI tool, but there are many established and emerging tools to know about. Generative AI tools (interfaces like ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Claude 2, Stable Diffusion) are built on models (like GPT-4, LaMDA, Llama 2) that are the “engines” behind those tools. This page provides information about various generative AI tools and their underlying engines. Content on this page is remixed with permission (Creative Commons CC-BY-NC 4.0) from the University of Sydney’s AI in Education Canvas site built by student for students. We’re thankful for their excellent work and their generosity!

Large Language Models (LLMs)

Tool Cost & access Sources Features
ChatGPT (free) from OpenAI Free OpenAI account needed Training data cut-off in September 2021 Good reasoning ability with wide general capability. Runs GPT-3.5 model
ChatGPT Plus from OpenAI Paid OpenAI account needed Training data cut-off in September 2021, but has access to live internet** via plugins Enhanced reasoning with reduced hallucinations. Can access the GPT-4 model
Bing Chat from Microsoft Available without an account. Free Microsoft account provides longer completions and more chat turns Training data cut-off in September 2021, but has access to live internet** Runs the GPT-4 model when set to ‘creative mode’
Bard from Google Free Google account needed. Not available using Middlebury Google credentials Has access to live internet** Wide general capability. Runs PaLM 2 model
Perplexity.ai from Perplexity Basic functionality is available without an account. Paid ‘pro’ version is available with access to more powerful features GPT-3.5 with internet** access Like ChatGPT, but provides information from actual sources across the internet
Claude Beta version available for free Claude 2 LLM, no internet access Claude 2 model powers a variety of AI tools (like Zoom, Notion). Wide general capability
HuggingChat by HuggingFace No account needed Meta’s open source Llama 2, no internet access, training data cutoff in July 2023 Billed as an open source alternative to ChatGPT

Image generation tools

Tool Cost & access Features
DALL-E 2 by OpenAI Free account needed Generate more realistic images at higher resolutions
Firefly by Adobe Free account needed Image and text effect generation
Bing Image Creator by Microsoft Free account needed Powered by DALL-E
Midjourney by Midjourney Inc Paid account needed, and accessed through Discord only Considered one of the more powerful image generation AIs available currently
Stable Diffusion by StabilityAI Free account needed Create descriptive images with shorter prompts and generate words within images

Research support tools

Tool Cost & access Features
Elicit.org from Ought Free account needed Searches scholarly articles using natural language queries, and extracts information from articles using GPT models to present summaries and other findings
Research Rabbit Free account needed Data visualization to track sources / citation mapping
Gamma Free account needed Create visually-appealing presentations and microsites quickly
Beautiful.ai Paid account needed Create visually-appealing presentations, offers integrations with Slack, Microsoft PPT, and more
ChatPDF Free account, limited use options with free account Uses GPT3.5 to allow users to ask questions about uploaded PDFs
Assistant by Scite Paid account needed Uses SciBERT. Billed as an AI citation index.

Video generation tools

Tool Cost & access Features
Pictory Free account needed. Paid account provides more functionality. Edit videos based on text/transcription editing to cut videos or create highlights
Deepbrain AI Free account needed Generate a video with human-looking AI presenting it by feeding a script
Steve.AI from Steve AI Paid account needed Create cartoon videos with written prompts

 

Sound generation tools

Tool Cost & access Features
ElevenLabs Limited to 10,000 characters per month for free access. Account needed. Generate audio in the voice of any accent and person, based on a sample audio recording of that person’s voice.
Soundraw Free account needed. Paid account allows for wider and further usage. Generate royalty-free music clips.

Code generation tools

Tool Cost & access Features
Copilot in Visual Studio Code from Microsoft/Github Paid account needed A tool in built in current Microsoft’s Visual Studio platform that is able to generate code based on textual input.
OpenAI Codex from OpenAI Paid account needed Turns comments into code and completes code.
Jupyter AI from JupyterLabs Free installation A tool available on the current Jupyter Notebook platform that is able to generate code based on textual input.

3D generation tools

Tool Cost & access Features
3DFY.ai by 3DFY Currently in beta mode Generates 3D models from text
Stability for Blender (plug-in in Blender) by Blender Free trial Creates images or 3D models based on text inputs or animations based on existing images