What people recommend, in their own words, with the receipt.
Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who studies AI and innovation; writes the One Useful Thing newsletter.
10 things
Claude 3.5 SonnetSoftware Anthropic
and really only has one model you care about - Claude 3.5 Sonnet. But Sonnet is very, very good. It often seems to be clever and insightful in ways that the other models are not.
An earlier edition of his opinionated guide to choosing an AI assistant; he notes he takes no money from AI labs.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-01-26
Veo 3Software Google
Generally, ChatGPT is stronger. On video creation, however, Gemini’s Veo 3 is very impressive, and you get several free uses a day
His periodic guide to which AI system a general reader should pick and how to use it.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-06-23
DeepSeekSoftware DeepSeek
if you want a very good all-around model with excellent reasoning. As an open model, you can either use it hosted on the original Chinese DeepSeek site or from a number of local providers.
An earlier edition of his opinionated guide to choosing an AI assistant; he notes he takes no money from AI labs.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-01-26
ChatGPTSoftware OpenAI
currently has the best Live Mode in its Advanced Voice Mode. The other big advantage of ChatGPT is that it does everything, often in somewhat confusing ways
An earlier edition of his opinionated guide to choosing an AI assistant; he notes he takes no money from AI labs.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-01-26
GeminiSoftware Google
Gemini’s advantage is a family of powerful models including reasoners, very good integration with search, and a pretty easy-to-use user interface, as you might expect from Google. It also has top-flight image and video generation.
An earlier edition of his opinionated guide to choosing an AI assistant; he notes he takes no money from AI labs.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-01-26
ClaudeSoftware Anthropic
So, for most people, just stick with Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT
His periodic guide to which AI system a general reader should pick and how to use it.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-06-23
GeminiSoftware Google
So, for most people, just stick with Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT
His periodic guide to which AI system a general reader should pick and how to use it.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-06-23
ChatGPTSoftware OpenAI
So, for most people, just stick with Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT
His periodic guide to which AI system a general reader should pick and how to use it.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-06-23
OpenAI o3Software OpenAI
I use o3, Claude 4 Opus, and Gemini 2.5 Pro for any serious work that I do.
His periodic guide to which AI system a general reader should pick and how to use it.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-06-23
GrokSoftware xAI
by Elon Musk’s xAI is good if you are a big X user, though the company has not been very transparent about how its AI operates.
His periodic guide to which AI system a general reader should pick and how to use it.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-06-23
Microsoft CopilotSoftware Microsoft
offers many of the features of ChatGPT and is accessible to users through Windows, but it can be hard to control what models you are using and when.
His periodic guide to which AI system a general reader should pick and how to use it.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-06-23
DeepSeek r1Software DeepSeek
r1, a Chinese model, is very capable and free to use, but is missing a few features from the other companies and it is not clear that they will keep up in the long term.
His periodic guide to which AI system a general reader should pick and how to use it.
oneusefulthing.org ↗·2025-06-23
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The small bar beside a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The bar shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Full and green is recent. It drains, and turns amber and then grey, as the post gets older.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The bar is empty after about:
A striped bar means the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no bar.