#51 - Comparing the paid AI's

One issue with the explosion of all the different AI models is access to their most powerful & capable versions. There are numerous players in the space now, each touting many similar capabilities but then also offering some differentiating value proposition - if you pay the monthly fee. The paid versions of the models below all offer different capabilities, but there are only so many $20/month subscriptions (that seems to be the general average price) anyone can justify on spending. One good thing is that they all offer month-by-month payment options so you can always dip in and see if a tool works for you before committing to a bigger annual payment. So what are the contenders and what do they offer?

Why should we have to pay?

These tools cost a HUGE amount to develop and train, so there has to be a business case - it's simply not feasible to develop this tech and make it free for everyone. So there is inevitably going to be a them and us divide between those who can afford to pay and those who can't. Everyone will have some AI access and capability, but as always, those with deeper pockets will get better, faster and more capable tools to use. More on this at this Perplexity page I pulled together:

ChatGPT

... has consistently been at the top of the pile in advancing AI capabilities, so is still the preferred model for many. I like the Customisation options in ChatGPT that let me adjust how it responds to prompts based on information I give it about me and what I want. More big news expected from them in the next few weeks on their next jump forward - that's why you might seeing lots of strawberries in the news as this is one of the project names... I will of course report on this when it happens.

But there are many others wanting a slice of the pie...

Claude

... has offered a much larger token window (the specific amount of text or data an AI model can process at one time) since it was first released, making it better for long complex analyses of lots of background data. Their new Artifacts feature auto-magically creates all kinds of amazing charts, code snippets, text documents, website designs and interactive objects, and Projects lets you add multiple sources and documents to then analyse and run prompts against.

Perplexity

... offers access to sourced materials as standard in its searches, and now has the Pages feature that lets you create persistent webpages of information very quickly and easily. It also lets you choose which of the major AI engines you want to use, or what type of search you want to make. I replaced Google with Perplexity as my default search engine by changing my browser settings - can't see going back to Google any time soon!

CoPilot

... from Microsoft is another contender for a slice of your monthly spend - not so much for their browser based AI app (you can access this for free)but because your €20/month gets it embedded into the Office suite. I do find it great to have the ability to just ask CoPilot within the Word interface, or generate a starting deck using Powerpoint with just a prompt. And if I was a heavy Excel user the AI possibilities with formulae and data analysis seem very powerful...

Google Gemini

We can't ever forget Google though - they're a big player and their Gemini Pro offer gets you full integration across the Google suite (Gmail, Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Meet) and 2Tb of additional cloud storage that can be used with your Gmail and other Google accounts.

POE

This versatile and often overlooked AI gives you free access to all the major chatbots and also allows you to create your own. You can upload files to work with, and it also has a voice mode - well worth a look...

Notion

While not strictly speaking an AI (Notion uses Claude as it's AI engine) it's a VERY powerful tool for organising and creating information and materials, and I use it pretty much every day to create talks an course materials.

You.com

One that I only came across recently is You.com. Michelle Kassorla, Ph.D. flagged this up recently as an AI that gives educators who log in with their educational email a half-price ($US 8/month) subscription. Access to all the various major AI models, file uploads to analyse data against, image generation - if you are only looking for one subscription then this might be the one... I do still love the Pages feature in Perplexity though so I haven't switched as yet...

What am I paying for at the moment?

AI tools I'm currently I'm paying for Perplexity, Copilot, Claude, Notion & Gamma (one of the best AI presentation creator apps).

And a few other bits'n'pieces from the AI news this week...

All the UN's key documents around AI

Fengchun Miao regularly posts about the UNESCO activity around AI, and this post brings all their key documents together in one place - some great information in here...

Guardrails around AI's

OpenAI published a fascinating piece recently where they outlined how they ran checks on their new ChatGPT voice (the natural sounding one that many of us are still waiting to get to play with).

Google updates its voice AI

Just announced - Google now has an AI chat mode - Android only for now but IOS coming soon...

OK, enough for now - see you next time!

EPALE - The European Adult Learning Network

Do you know about EPALE - the European Adult Learning Network? I'm one of the Irish Ambassadors for EPALE, and you can join over 100,000 educators across Europe in a free online community - it's a great way to get different points of view, participate in training from across the continent and stay up to date on educational thought. Create your free account at https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/user/login

Affiliate Links (stuff I use and recommend)

Perplexity AI - Best search and my go-to AI now... Uses the latest top AI models from ChatGPT, Claude et al, innovates constantly - give it a try!

https://perplexity.ai/pro?referral_code=VYD33BFN

Unriddle AI is a research site that lets you upload docs and then interrogate them.

https://www.unriddle.ai//?ref=JH

Check out Humata - it's another AI that let's you work on your own documents and interrogate them. https://www.humata.ai/?via=joe-houghton

My tool of choice for serious AI image creation is Leonardo. The user interface is easy and very powerful, enabling you to create just what you want in any style really quickly. https://app.leonardo.ai/?via=joe

Notion

This is my tool of choice now for collecting all the bits'n'pieces of information I squirrel away for talk, articles and presentations. I can then generate webpages in a snap and share them, and they update in real-time as I add new info to them! There's so much you can do in Notion - well worth a look:

Joe Houghton is an Assistant Professor at UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business where he directs the MSc programmes in Project Management. After a career in IT in multinationals, Joe switched into a portfolio career of University teaching, management coaching and training.

He has authored 7 books to date including "Study smart with AI - 150 essential apps", "Innovative teaching with AI: Creative approaches to enhancing learning in education", "Project Management made easy...: the ECCSR approach", and "Applying Artificial Intelligence to Close the Accessibility Gap: A practical handbook for educators & students!" all available on Amazon!

Contact Joe on email at [email protected] for any requests for training, seminars, workshops or keynote speaking.