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Artificial intelligence (AI) is already transforming how we live and work (read the relevant article here). Whether it’s powering personal assistants, improving search engines, or enhancing customer service, AI is all around us.
AI apps are making complex tasks easier and expanding what’s possible with technology. In this article, we explore seven absolute basic and helpful AI apps that have a broad scope and are AI-based.
Read on to discover the must-have AI apps for understanding and experiencing artificial intelligence.
Why These 7 AI Apps Make the List
With new AI apps launching constantly, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. The apps on this list rise above the crowd for their versatile utility, broad user acceptance, and trailblazing of new AI capabilities.
Rather than niche tools, these apps demonstrate full-featured AI assistants, creators, and optimizers. They were selected because AI forms the core of their offering, not just an add-on feature. From creative to analytical applications, these apps showcase AI’s expansive potential.
Becoming familiar with tools like familiar with tools like ChatGTP, Bard, Claude, Midjourney, Harpa, Perplexity, and Otter.ai, lays the groundwork for applying AI, whether as hands-on users or creators shaping future applications. You can see what works well today versus areas still improving. Overall, these seven apps provide a practical grounding in AI that empowers you to view technology through the lens of possibility. For a more well-rounded approach, we recommend you read our article “Picking the Right AI Chat Platform: Your Go-To Guide for Every Task“
ChatGPT – AI Chatbot from OpenAI
Launched: 2022
Creator: OpenAI
ChatGPT exploded in popularity as an AI chatbot that can answer questions, explain concepts, write content and code, and more based on conversational text prompts. It showcases the power of large language models.
Interacting with ChatGPT provides first-hand experience conversing with an AI. Its ability to respond to natural language queries with human-like exchanges reveals the technology’s expansive potential, for better or worse.
ChatGPT offers an accessible way to experiment with AI’s capabilities and limitations. The bot’s launching sparked widespread public interest in AI as users explored its uncanny conversational capacity.
Claude – AI Assistant from Anthropic
Launched: 2023
Creator: Anthropic
Claude is an AI assistant created by startup Anthropic to be helpful, harmless, and honest. Claude focuses on natural language conversations using Constitutional AI that adheres to safety guidelines.
With Claude, you can have wide-ranging conversations with a responsive AI. Ask Claude challenging questions, explain concepts, or have it summarize long passages. The assistant avoids biased and harmful responses through Anthropic’s self-monitoring Constitutional AI approach.
Claude demonstrates the potential for AI assistants to handle nuanced topics safely. Its conversational ability helps users learn the possibilities and limitations of today’s AI.
Bard – Conversational AI from Google
Launched: 2023
Creator: Google
Google recently introduced Bard, an experimental conversational AI service aimed at providing helpful, high-quality responses. It signals Google’s entry into the AI chatbot race.
Bard represents an evolution of Google’s language AI efforts like LaMDA. While still early stage, Google plans to make Bard more available for testing applications of natural language AI.
By accessing and processing information from the real world through Google Search, Bard claims to provide more comprehensive and informative answers.
Midjourney – AI Image Generator
Launched: 2022
Creator: Midjourney
Midjourney leverages AI to generate stunning imaginary images from text descriptions. Give it a prompt like “an astronaut riding a horse on Mars” and Midjourney creates an artwork depicting the scene.
Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence program and service, was launched by David Holz. The Midjourney team is led by David Holz, who previously co-founded Leap Motion. Midjourney was founded in San Francisco, California. The platform entered open beta on July 12, 2022. It is currently developed and hosted by Midjourney, Inc., an independent research lab based in San Francisco.
The app showcases AI’s creative potential. With Midjourney, users can explore ideas visually and access customized images on demand. It also assists artists and designers by sparking new directions.
Midjourney remains on the leading edge of AI image generation. Its ability to manifest ideas into images reveals a practical creative application of AI.
Otter.ai – AI Transcription App
Launched: 2023 (as OtterPilot) Otter app was launched in 2016
Creator: Otter.ai
Otter.ai is a voice transcription app powered by AI that generates text from audio recordings. It can capture meetings, interviews, lectures, and other spoken conversations for reference and sharing.
Otter.ai is a Mountain View, California-based technology company that develops speech-to-text transcription applications using artificial intelligence and machine learning. It was founded in 2016 by Sam Liang and Yun Fu, two computer science engineers with a long history of working with artificial intelligence.
Otter.ai‘s software, called Otter, shows captions for live speakers and generates written transcriptions of speeches. It was launched as AISense in 2016. In January 2018, the company announced a partnership with Zoom Video Communications to transcribe video meetings after they are held.
In February 2023, Otter.ai launched a new AI meeting assistant called OtterPilot, which automates meetings and helps professionals save time and increase productivity. The new features include an AI-generated summary of key meeting topics, automated capture of images of slides shared during virtual meetings, and real-time meeting notes that can be shared and collaborated on. OtterPilot also includes the company’s bot, Otter Assistant, which can automatically join meetings on a user’s calendar and transcribe conversations.
For those new to AI, Otter.ai provides a clear example of how AI can amplify human productivity by completing administrative tasks automatically. Otter.ai‘s accurate speech-to-text translates hours of talk into readily searchable transcripts. This saves significant manual effort while enhancing accessibility.
Harpa AI
Launched: 2023
Creator: HarpaAI
Harpa.ai is a Google Chrome extension that combines GPT (ChatGPT, Bard, ClaudeAI) with web automation to provide an AI-powered automation agent for your browser. It was launched by HARPA AI and is trusted by over 160,000 professionals. You can use Harpa.ai to chat with websites, PDFs, videos, write emails, SEO articles, tweets, automate workflows, monitor prices & data. It is a Bing AI & Notion AI alternative.
Harpa.ai has a hybrid AI engine and works with OpenAI GPT-3 & GPT-4 API, ChatGPT, Claude2 and Google Bard 1. It can summarize and reply to emails for you, rewrite, rephrase, correct and expand text, read articles, translate and scan web pages for data. You can use Harpa.ai to extract key takeaways from hours-long videos with a click of a button.
It can mimic your writing style while crafting emails, tweets replies, LinkedIn cover letters, and SEO-optimized articles of unlimited length. Harpa.ai can perform SEO audit, extract SEO keywords, compile keyword reports, segment your audience, create content calendars, outrank articles.
Perplexity
Launched: 2023
Creator: Perplexity AI
Perplexity AI is an AI-chat-based conversational search engine that delivers answers to questions using language models. It was founded in August 2022 by a team of heavy hitters from OpenAI, Meta, Quora, and Databrick, including Aravind Srinivas (CEO), Denis Yarats (CTO), and Andy Konwinski. The company has raised $28.7M in funding so far.
Perplexity AI provides many benefits, including links and sources for its answers. The currently free AI chatbot is available via web browser and the Apple App Store. It uses machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to respond to user questions. NLP helps the AI interpret and manipulate the data and has multiple applications such as translation, chatbots, and voice assistants.
Perplexity uses AI to provide summaries, background information, and contextual explanations of text documents. It helps users quickly extract key insights from complex material. Perplexity demonstrates how AI can enhance understanding and analysis of information. The app makes extracting value from written content easier. Perplexity AI aims to provide users with a conversational AI-powered search engine that includes citations and sources in its answers.
AI is moving rapidly from research labs to practical applications. These seven apps provide a cross-section of leading AI use cases, from creativity to productivity:
- AI apps showcase technology breakthroughs through accessible tools.
- Conversational AI apps like ChatGPT and Claude allow direct interaction with AI capabilities.
- Creative AI apps like Midjourney expand possibilities for generating images, video, and music.
- Productivity AI apps like Otter.ai automate tasks by leveraging language AI.
- Testing AI apps first-hand builds AI literacy and direct experience benefiting both users and developers.
- Leading AI apps lower barriers for accessing powerful technology to enhance human potential.
As artificial intelligence evolves, familiarity with innovative AI apps lays the groundwork for applying AI, whether as users or creators. These seven AI apps provide fertile training ground for envisioning and shaping the future of AI.
This article provides an unbiased overview of each tool, informed by user reviews and expert insights, aligning with The AI Track’s commitment to offering genuinely helpful, freely accessible resources.
