There are four AI assistants you'll hear about constantly. Each one has a personality — but they all do roughly the same job: you type a question or request, they answer in plain language.
ChatGPT — the original
Made by a company called OpenAI, ChatGPT was the one that started the conversation in 2022. It's like a very patient, very fast research assistant. Ask it anything — it'll answer without judging you for not knowing.
Claude — the careful one
Made by Anthropic, Claude tends to give longer, more thoughtful answers. People particularly like it for writing, editing, and making sense of long documents. It's also the AI inside Bliks.
Gemini — Google's version
Google built Gemini. Its big advantage is that it connects naturally to things you might already use — Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive. If your work life lives in Google, Gemini can slot right in.
Perplexity — the search engine that talks back
Perplexity is different. Instead of a blank chat box, it feels more like a search engine. Ask a question, it gives you a summary — and crucially, it shows you the sources it used. Great if you don't want to just trust an AI blindly.
Safe to ignore for now: there are also AI models called Llama, Mistral, and Grok. Real, but not where you need to start. The four above are plenty.
None of these is definitively 'the best'. They're like coffee shops: each has regulars who love it, and the differences matter more once you know what you're doing.
I'm brand new to AI. Give me 5 practical things you could help me with today — not theoretical, just real everyday tasks. Keep each one to a single sentence.