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Andrew Smith's avatar

I always appreciate these personal approaches and descriptions. It's good to know that you've been around the block several times, and you've settled on these particular tools. I myself have centered most of my research around ChatGPT Plus, and as a bonus, I get really good image generation. I use Gemini (or Google's Experimental Model) to read and "grade" my work - ChatGPT is still better at reviewing writing, but Gemini will notice some errors ChatGPT will not.

Perplexity has become a favorite too. It's amazing for quick research, probably better than the other 2 I mentioned. I've used the paid versions of GPT and Gemini, but only the free Perplexity model, and it is nearly as good as the paid models for my needs.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

I might need a crash course on Perplexity one of these days. You're one of many people on Substack who seem to use it regularly, but while I've tried it out multiple times, I could never get it to "stick" in my routine.

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Craig Van Slyke's avatar

For me it helps to think of Perplexity as a research tool, not a colleague that I’m chatting with. (Maybe this only makes sense to me though!)

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Same. I have now started using it, especially the "Pro" mode for deeper, slightly more complex searchers. The "Pro" mode appears to be somewhere between traditional AI search and the "Gemini Deep Research" you mentioned in a separate comment. It makes an action/research plan and follows it, although it doesn't give you the option to edit it and doesn't crawl nearly as many pages.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

I have little to add, but feel obligated since today's email triggered me like one of Pavlov's dogs.

I do use Perplexity from time to time, especially for a quick alternative "opinion" or incognito search where I don't want to sign in, etc.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Yeah, Perplexity is growing on me too but not to the extend where it becomes my go-to search engine. It's definitely a nice supplement for those in-between, semi-complex queries.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Oh hey, I actually *enjoyed* using Google's 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental with apps (the title rolls off of the keyboard just as smoothly as it rolls off the tongue) today. That's a first for talking to Google about anything, ever. Big step up!

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Andrew Smith's avatar

For me, if I already have an idea about something but want to verify info, it's very fast and very effective, and very transparent insofar as where the info is coming from.

I do note that what we're using these tools for very much determines which tool is the best to use. I'm not sure that was the case a year ago.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Agreed. Perhaps the reason I never got "into" Perplexity is that my current writing and research routine isn't a good fit for it. I mean, it's clearly a solid product, but I just don't find myself naturally navigating to it.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Yep. Same reason I don't use Midjourney every day.

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Al Mcleod's avatar

I've started using Napkin ai for ai based dynamic graphic images. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's my new go to for creating dynamic colourful images using prompts. Amazing

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Oh yeah, Napkin's supposed to be great at turning concepts from text into visuals. I played around with it back when it was launched but never really used it for my own work. I might have to revisit it, thanks for reminding me.

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AI Cinema By Elettra Fiumi's avatar

Gamma for presentations is awesome! For video also Leonardo and Freepik, ElevenLabs for audio, Flora for creative workflow genning!

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Yeah, Freepik is very simlar to Krea in that it lets you test drive a bunch of models from other providers on one platform. I did come across Flora before but never used it heavily. Will put it on my list to check out!

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Nico Appel's avatar

Did you miss to mention perplexitiy.ai?

I was expecting that to show up under research.

At this point, I'd be curious to hear from anyone who knows about perplexity and is _not_ using it. I guess that is not you, but just double-checking.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Hey Nico. Nope, haven't missed it.

Count me in as someone who's well aware of Perplexity but isn't using it actively. I remember trying it way back in early 2023 and even showcasing it as the future of search to some friends. I also know many people here on Substack who absolutely swear by Perplexity.

I've made several attempts at incorporating Perplexity into my daily life, going as far as following specific instructions on YouTube about setting up special browser extensions for it and using it as my default search engine. At the time, I went back to Google because I didn't like how Perplexity handled navigational queries - it'd take me to a Perplexity answer for a company instead of just opening their website when I'd type the name into the search bar.

So, while I recognize that Perplexity is a very useful tool for many people, it'd feel disingenuous to put it on a list of my personal used tools. I briefly considered putting it on the list (under "Research," exactly as you mentioned) but then I'd have to add the disclaimer that I don't use it, which might've given the impression that I don't approve of it. But the simple story is that it's just not in my daily repertoire. Perhaps it will be at some later stage.

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Nico Appel's avatar

Interesting

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Kiran Sudhakar's avatar

What about gamma? I like Claude, perplexity, chat GPT obviously but between Notion, gamma and Gemini combo. I put together a fair amount of presentations so I guess that’s why gamma it’s important.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Gamma is pretty great, but since I don't often create presentations, it's not on my personal go-to list. But whenever anyone asks me about an AI-powered slide tool, Gamma is the first one I think of!

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Angela Stewart's avatar

This list is 🔥🔥🔥

Thanks for sharing!

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Happy you found it useful!

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David TW Wong's avatar

Thanks for sharing. I also use Merlin with chrome, it allows me to chat with any webpage. Easy to use and is free.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

You're welcome David, and yes, I'm aware of Merlin and similar extensions but haven't really used them beyond testing a few casually (wrote about Hyper write a long time ago: https://www.whytryai.com/p/riffusion-prompter-hyperwrite)

But based on you feedback, I'll give Merlin another closer look!

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Alicia Bankhofer's avatar

Same here. I pay for ChatGPT and loved Claude but the limits are maddening. Trying Gemini Pro out. For images ChatGPT and Canva because of the editing features. Napkin is really cool.

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Alicia Bankhofer's avatar

Will need a few weeks to proper gauge its performance for my needs. Interesting that 2.5 remains at the top of the llm leaderboard overall.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Would love to hear your thoughts on Gemini. I'm still amazed that Google gives free access to so many of its frontier models in Google AI Studio.

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Aja Célestin's avatar

OpenAi's Deep Research isn't available on the $20 sub that I see. I only am aware of Gemini and Perplexity's available for that price. Thanks for this though!

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Daniel Nest's avatar

It is. You get 10 “Deep Research” queries per month with the $20 ChatGPT Plus account, which is what I'm on. And you're welcome!

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Andrew Smith's avatar

I'm commenting again because I wanna thank you for the update. I think we need one of these every few months now.

Also: I was reminded yesterday while watching a clip of Steve Jobs describing tech development at Apple, circa 1998 or so - right as he was returning as CEO. The question someone asked was brutal, and obviously implied that Jobs wasn't deep in the weeds with software or programming. Jobs's response was, of course, emotionally intelligent and patient, and besides not taking the bait, his answer really takes things in a more interesting direction.

Essentially, his conclusion was to stop looking for uses for a tool, and instead invert that and consider only what he wanted to do. I myself have learned this lesson, but I have to remind myself every now and then that I don't have to master every tool that comes out, or even experiment with them.

At the same time, we need to know what the tools are ultimately capable of, and that's where you sneak in! Nicely done.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

I don't think it'd even be realistic these days to use every tool even if you wanted to, there are simply too many now. So yeah - use-case-based approach makes the most sense!

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Andrew Smith's avatar

(this is my excuse for not using NotebookLM so far)

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Tamminga Designs's avatar

Interesting list of tools and ine if that I need to look into is Notebook LM.

Here are the tools that I am using:

Image creation:

NightCafe Studio. They have extensive list of models, both paid and free, including Flux, Ideogram and Google Imagen.

Leonardo. The Phoenix model is one of my go to's

Google Image FX. I stumbled across this one a few weeks ago and it has been creating images to my liking and it is completely free.

Idea creation and brainstorming:

ChatGPT. The limited free version for brain storming and it remembers what I am working on and I can recall a style that i've setup with ease.

Google AI Studio. This is more becoming my go-to for idea generation.

Perplexity. I use this one infrequently and mostly when I need some straight forward no BS results.

For image editing and more I use Canva.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Great list.

I also enjoyed NightCafe back in the day, but nowadays I typically prefer to go to the source where possible. As for ImageFX - that's powered by Google's Imagen 3 model as I outlined in the list. So you should essentially get the same output whether you use it in NightCafe or via ImageFX.

And yes, love the Google AI Studio - free and early access to lots of experimental features that later get rolled out to Gemini (e.g. screen sharing and webcam live streaming while chatting).

Thanks for sharing!

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smackintosh's avatar

damn some dope tools on here! thanks for the free game man for reals.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

I'm happy you found the list useful!

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Ian White's avatar

Solid list Daniel and great for beginners. I remember when I caved to pay for GPT+ last year, one of my favorite $20/mo. That broke open a productivity door for me, and since, I've been exploring business-level applications like Kore.ai agentic builder, Clay for sales prospecting, etc.

Focused on productivity gains via AI in the next 6-months.. excited for what OpenAI and Perplexity have rolling out soon for + users in terms of Operator Agents. Cool stuff ahead!

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Glad you found it useful, Ian!

Thanks for putting Kore and Clay on my radar. I typically focus on generic, jack-of-all-trades tools here on Why Try AI to keep things relevant to wider audiences, but there are so many niche business products out there for almost any purpose imaginable.

Would love to hear more about the way you use Kore and Clay and what your thoughts on them are, if you feel like sharing.

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Vic's avatar

Great list even for an old retired guy. I have added Grok 3. It is very handy for fact checking within X due to its accessibility.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Happy you found this useful, Vic! And yeah, Grok 3 came out after my last update and it's pretty solid in my tests. But it will likely soon be hidden behind an X Premium paywall after the public beta phase, so let's see if it'll remain as accessible.

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Darius Bacani's avatar

This article is very informative! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on how AI tools work in different aspects of work.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Glad you found it useful Darius!

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Beatriz Bernardo S.'s avatar

Excited to read it!!!

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