Here Are My Go-To AI Tools

My preferred LLMs, image models, AI video sites, music makers, and a research tool.

I’m on vacation with the family for my kids’ school break, so this will be a quick post.

I often get asked about AI tools that I personally use.

While I regularly review all sorts of AI models and sites, most of them don’t end up becoming a part of my routine.

Here are those that did.

🗣️ 1. Large language models

These are the chatbots and LLMs I turn to.

• 🎁Free:

  • GPT-4o (via ChatGPT) for mixed media conversations. GPT-4o is my least preferred LLM in terms of tone of voice and conversational ability. But it’s hard to beat the complete free ChatGPT package with web browsing, (limited) image creation, and more. ChatGPT is also my go-to partner for working on AI Jest Daily cartoons.

  • Claude 3.5 Sonnet for brainstorming and day-to-day usage. Claude has a “fresh” conversational feel and tends to come up with unconventional ideas when brainstorming. The Artifacts feature is fantastic for working on a project side-by-side with Claude. The only downside is the strict message limit for free accounts.

  • Gemini 1.5 Pro (via Google AI Studio) for working with long documents or files. Gemini’s insane 2M-token window and ability to natively process audio and video make it a beast for dealing with any long inputs in multiple formats. It’s also my default “beta reader” when asking for writing feedback.

• 💵Paid:

  • ChatGPT Plus. I canceled my paid ChatGPT subscription a few months ago because my needs were covered by a combination of other tools. But if I had to pick a single tool to pay for, ChatGPT Plus is still hard to beat. It’s a true all-in-one solution that gives you…

    • Advanced data analysis (“Code Interpreter”)

    • Image creation via DALL-E 3

    • Web browsing for news and knowledge beyond its training data

    • Ability to create your own Custom GPTs for different purposes

    • Canvas (new): “Artifacts”-inspired right-side window for working on coding or writing projects.

    • Advanced Voice Mode (new): Extremely humanlike, real-time voice chat.

    • SearchGPT (upcoming): An improved web browsing feature that OpenAI is rolling out.

For $20 / month, this set of features is hard to beat.

🖼️ 2. AI images

Here are my favorite image models.

• 🎁Free:

  • DALL-E 3 for cartoons and simple illustrations. DALL-E 3 was my original choice for making single-frame cartoons for AI Jest Daily. It mostly still holds up, although I increasingly find myself turning to Ideogram 2.0 (see below). You can use DALL-E 3 for free via Microsoft Designer or Microsoft Copilot.

  • Ideogram 2.0 as a solid all-rounder model. It does better at photographic¹ images than DALL-E 3 and is probably the best image model at handling complex prompts and accurately rendering long text inside images. You get 10 generations (40 images) for free every day.

  • FLUX 1.1 [pro] if you want photographic images. I can’t say I’ve used FLUX nearly as much as many other models, but it’s excellent at rendering realistic “photos.” There are two sites that let you use it for free.

• 💵Paid:

  • Midjourney…I know, big surprise! I’ve written dozens of posts about Midjourney, and it remains the best paid option in my book. It can handle a huge range of styles and image formats, gives you strong editing tools and features, and is still the best model for realistic photographic images.

📽️ 3. AI video

Here’s my take on AI video models after testing lots of text-to-video and image-to-video options.

• 🎁Free:

  • Kling AI for text-to-video. Kling AI comes close to² Runway’s quality while giving you free daily credits. Kling AI also recently upgraded its lip-syncing feature and added a text-to-speech engine with realistic voices.

  • MiniMax / Hailuo AI for image-to-video. It came seemingly out of nowhere to truly impress me with its visual consistency and realistic movements.

• 💵 Paid:

  • Runway for the complete package.³ Runway’s Gen-3 model is fantastic, and the site itself comes with dozens of robust tools to help filmmakers work professionally with the resulting video clips.

🎵 4. AI music

I rarely use AI music tools (and mostly just to goof around), but when I do…

• 🎁Free:

  • Suno and Udio. The two are largely interchangeable for casual users, with similar feature sets and output quality.⁴ Both give you a generous amount of free credits, so give them a try to see which one you like the most.

• 💵 Paid:

  • Suno or Udio. Once you’ve picked your favorite, you can always upgrade for additional features. Suno might have a slight edge with its cool “Covers” option that makes a cover version of any song in whatever style you wish. Udio is slightly more robust in terms of vocals. You honestly can’t go wrong with either one.

🔬 5. Research

• 🎁Free:

  • NotebookLM had to be a standalone recommendation. Right now, there’s simply no better AI tool for deep research. I’ve been a fan since March this year, and NotebookLM has only gotten better after that. You can now use audio and video as inputs and turn your sources into a range of helpful outputs including the incredible “Audio Overview” podcast. NotebookLM is completely free, so you have no excuse not to try it for yourself.

🫵 Over to you…

What AI tools do you use the most? What would you add to the above list?

Leave a comment or drop me an email at whytryai@substack.com.

1. People often use the term “photorealistic” here, but I take issue with it. Photorealism is used specifically to describe something that’s not a photograph (e.g. a painting) but is made to look like one. So I use “photographic” to refer to AI images that faithfully mimic the look of an actual photo.

2. And sometimes exceeds.

3. I don’t use it much myself, but it’s an easy recommendation based on my tests and everything I’ve seen from other users.

4. Even though I crowned a winner in my Sunday Showdown #6.