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Student Guide to AI & ChatGPT

Artificial Intelligence and natural language processing have been growing in their influence and use in the recent years. Being aware of how these tools can be used for positive and negative reasons will help you navigate the changing landscape of informa

Beyond ChatGPT: other useful language models

Beyond ChatGPT: other useful language models

These are several other useful large language models (LLMs) that you may want to try.

Large Language Models (LLMs)

Large Language Models (LLMs)

ChatGPT logo ChatGPT

Open AI
Free
Trained on data only through October 2023

As of April 2024, you can use it without creating an account.

Additional features (with usage rate limits)

  • Browse the web and obtain up-to-date information

  • Upload images in your prompts

  • Provide support files in your prompts

  • Discover and use GPTs
ChatGPT Plus logo ChatGPT Plus

Open AI
$20/mo
Includes:

  • a new ChatGPT Search (as of Oct. 31, 2024)
  • data analysis
  • coding
  • vision (upload images and ask questions about them)
  • Image generation
  • Canvas: a new way of working with ChatGPT to write and code

Build chatbots without using code. These are called "GPTs."

Enterprise edition for large businesses. Teams account for small business.

As of September 2024, there's a new model called o1-preview.

This model is useful for coding and specialized tasks in science, technology,
engineering, and math. 

It can spend time thinking through different solutions before it responds.
Microsoft Copilot Microsoft
Free, built on GPT-4 (If you use Creative mode)
Generate images with DALL-E 3
using Bing Image Creator or Microsoft Designer (log in with a personal Microsoft account)

Includes web search results.

Copilot Pro Plan with more features for individuals (for personal/home accounts)
Copilot for Microsoft 365 with more features for institutions and businesses. (not yet available at CCBC)
However, if you log on to Copilot with your CCBC username, your privacy will be protected
   (they won't use your input for training future models)
Google Bard logo Gemini Google
Free, built on Gemini Pro
Includes web search results from Google.

Gemini Advanced is built on Gemini Ultra ($20/mo)
Claude logo Claude

Anthropic
Free. Also available in Slack.
Built on their own model: Claude 3.5 Sonnet which includes:

  • data analysis
  • coding
  • vision (upload images and ask questions about them)
  • "Artifacts" - these allow Claude to share standalone content
    in a dedicated window separate from the main conversation.

Pro version ($20/mo) 

Focused on reliability and safety.
No web search results. Trained on data through April 2024.
Perplexity AI Perplexity
Free. Includes web search results, with citations.
Offers "Focus" choices such as
YouTube, Reddit, Semantic Scholar ,and Wolfram|Alpha.

You can use it without creating an account.

Pro account ($20/mo) allows a choice between several models:
GPT-4o, Claude, and others.
Meta AI

Meta
Free, built on Meta Llama 3.1
Includes web search results. 

Log in with your Facebook or Instagram account.

You can also access the chatbot on WhatsApp, Instagram,
Messenger, or Facebook, by typing "@meta ai" within chats.

Learn more.

For a list of more AI tools, see AI Tools Landscape by Carlos Lizarraga-Celaya.

Other useful tools based on LLMs

Other useful tools based on LLMs

These tools are based on language models, like those from OpenAI.

Elicit
Find answers from 175 million research papers. Elicit uses semantic similarity, which finds papers related to your question even if they don't use the same keywords. See How to use Elicit responsibly.

NotebookLM
Google's tool for saving and working with your own notes. You can include links to websites, Google Docs, Google Slides, YouTube, or paste in any text and then get useful summaries, quiz questions, and even a simulated podcast based on your content. Learn more in this video. Also, Google never uses your data to train NotebookLM.  Also, "your uploads, queries, or the model's responses remain private to you."

Explainpaper
Upload a PDF, highlight confusing text, and get a simpler explanation. Useful for reading research papers outside your field. You can also get explanations in languages other than English. Learn more about Explain Paper.

Inciteful
Build a network of academic papers and it will analyze the network to help you discover the most relevant literature. Select two papers and it will show how the literature connects them together.

Petal
Reference manager and more. Ask the AI to explain your selection, translate it into another language, or identify key points.

Scite AI assistant
A conversational tool made by Scite that lets you ask questions in simple language and get answers backed by real, up to date references. Think of like ChatGPT with real, up to date references, tailor-made for anyone discovering, understanding, or writing research.