Occasionally people ask me what AI they should consider using, so here is my current, updated list.

When pressed to recommend just one AI, I still suggest ChatGPT because it is so versatile. Just remember that ChatGPT 5 has a "model router" and performs best when you direct it to "think deeply" so that it chooses the reasoning version.

But it's not the AI that I use most frequently.

Here's the list of AIs that I use nearly every day, and generally how I use them, in descending order of frequency:

• Perplexity (usually their Sonar model selected) = replaces Google for web search
• Claude 4.1 = coding and other technical tasks; contract analysis (Claude Opus 4.1 is superb at these, though I hit rate limits quickly so use Claude Sonnet more often)
• ChatGPT 5 and o3 = most everything else, especially my custom GPTs like Neil’s Fun Finder
• Gemini 2.5 Pro = when I need large context or PDF analysis
• Github Copilot = coding assistance and analysis directly in my IDE (Visual Studio)
• Grok 4 = occasional analysis of random things. It always impresses me, I should use it more often.

For greater control over how they perform, I often use the "developer playgrounds" instead of the consumer-facing websites or apps of these. This lets me vary the "temperature" and also modify the "system prompt" separately from the "user prompt" for greater precision and steer-ability of the AI. It also lets me experiment with tasks that I intend to implement programmatically via their APIs. For example, I can refine the structured output they will emit to be ingested by code I am writing that orchestrates the use of AI for projects like the Yanzio AI Assistants.

Honorable mention goes to a variety of other tools, including Replit, Lovable, Cursor, Poe and other AI tools I use sporadically.

I also use Whispr Typing to dictate voice into any editable text box. Free, and so much faster than typing.