OpenAI - The earliest mover with the viral web front-end and the name ChatGPT. Suitable for most tasks, with recent versions making improvements in the areas of reasoning and avoiding hallucinations (think of AI as an intern). The iPhone and Android apps provide access to AI while on the go. If you sign up for the paid plan ($20 a month), you get early access to features such as the ability for the bot to access the web and use plugins that supercharge functionality. The Code Interpreter feature promises to be significantly good at analysis. 

Google Gemini - A free interface available to everyone with a Google account (note you'll need to use a personal account as Illinois Google accounts do not have Gemini enabled). Does reasonably well on most tasks, and has access to the web by default. Some AI capabilities are already integrated into Google tools.

Microsoft Copilot - Available for free as part of the University's Office 365 suite to faculty, staff, and students. Has default access to the web and is powered by the latest models from OpenAI, so for normal usage this could be considered a free version of ChatGPT, versus the paid version from OpenAI. Microsoft has also enabled plugins for several services and will continue to add more. Given that Microsoft is currently offering OpenAI models for free, and adding plugins support, it seems the best free option, and it includes references.

ChatPDF - One specific use case that might be very relevant for most users is to be able to ‘chat’ with a PDF document. This might be a research article, a printout of a web page (saved as .pdf), or a PDF of a book. It is a very simple and elegant solution. There are limitations on how much you can use it for free. This feature will be subsumed in one of the other platforms soon, but for now, it is an excellent tool. 

Perplexity - If you are looking for a response from a model that includes an aggregation of search and a generative model and present it with references, this is a good option. Microsoft Copilot chat also includes references in its response, so this is not specific to Perplexity, though the experience is better with this tool.

Adobe Firefly – Generative AI can be used for images, audio, and video. Adobe Firefly (beta) is currently available via university license and lets you quickly create graphics. Two powerful features include: “text to image” to generate images from a detailed text description and “generative fill” which makes it easy to remove objects or paint in new ones by supplying text descriptions. Other features include text effects, generative recolor, 3D to image, and extending images.

For a full searchable list of AI Tools, check out the AI Scout Directory.

Purchasing licenses

To purchase a license or subscription for generative AI, you must first fill out the following two forms and obtain approvals on both before using a university P-Card for purchase:

• Electronic Services Purchased by P-Card
  Once this is signed, after purchase, upload along with the receipt into Chrome River.
• P-Card Exception Request
  This form, once signed, authorizes you to enter a P-Card to pay the monthly subscription fee. Do not purchase until this is in place/approved. Approval will take up to 10 business days.

The University System offices are currently finalizing guidance on the use of generative AI tools. Once this guidance is available, an extra educational and consent step will be added to this process.