Large Language Model (LLM) chatbots are likely the most widely known AI tools.
One of the challenges of keeping up with this technology is the pace at which it is changing. The librarians will work to keep this page updated but keep in mind changes may happen frequently.
This page was last updated on March 25, 2024.
ChatGPT is a natural language processing chatbot driven by generative AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more. ChatGPT was created by Open AI and was launched November 2022.
Pricing Information: ChatGPT's has various tiers of service. There is a free tier of service for individuals, which allows access to the ChatGPT 3.5 model. The free tier's information is up to date only as far as January 2022. ChatGPT plus is available for $20/month and allows access to ChatGPT 4 model. ChatGPT 4.0 is up to date as of April 2023. There are additional tiers of service that are more expensive as well.
ChatGPT 3.5 inputs are text. This text can take the form of normal text or code snippets. ChatGPT 3.5 output are the same text or code snippets, though slightly better formatted.
ChatGPT 4 inputs are also include text and code snippets but also allows for file upload. Users can also upload word documents, spreadsheets, and images. ChatGPT 4 outputs include text, code snippets, images, and files.
Source: OpenAI's large language models, including the models that power ChatGPT are developed using three primary sources of information: Information that is publicly available on the internet, Information that is licensed from third parties, information that users or human trainers provide. ChatGPT's model "reads" a large amount of existing text and learns how words tend to appear in context with other words. Then it uses what it has learned to predict the next most likely word that might appear in response to a user request. This is similar to auto-complete features on search engines, smartphones, and email programs.
Corpus and training data: GPT includes publicly available information on the internet, information licensed from a third party, information provided by users or human trainers.
For the first type, GPT uses information that is freely and openly available on the Internet. This does not include information behind paywalls or on the dark web. GPT applies filters to remove information that it does not want the model to learn from or output, such as hate speech, adult content, personal information, or spam. GPT does not copy or store training information in a database. Instead, it learns about association between words and those learnings help the model up date its numbers/weights. The model then uses those weights to predict and generate new words in response to a user request.
Benchmarks and guardrails: As stated by OpenAI, a large amount of data on the internet relates to people. OpenAI uses training information only to help our models learn about language and how to understand and respond to it. OpenAI does not and will not user personal information in training information to build profiles about people, to contact them, to advertise to them, to try to sell them anything, or sell the information itself.
Accessibility: Browser extensions to make ChatGPT more accessible include:
Read the Web - Text to Speech
Natural Readers - Text to Speech
Be My Eyes - for the vision impaired
JAWS - for the vision impaired
Claude is an artificial intelligence, created by Anthropic using Constitutional AI. Anthropic claims to develop artificial intelligence in a safe, responsible way that benefits the public, not only shareholders.
Claude has a free tier of service which is similar in functionality to ChatGPT. Claude Pro is $20/month for additional functionality. Inputs include text, code snippets, word documents, and spreadsheets such as excel or .csv files. Outputs are basically textual including standard text, code snippets, etc.
Foundation Model: In the link cited here, Claude has an extensive policy/statement on what lengths Anthropic went to in order to ensure a responsible process of training the AI model.
Corpus and training data: Claude's training data is current as of August 2023. According to Claude, Claude 2.1 was trained on a diverse range of public domain and scraped data that was carefully filtered and processed. This includes web content, expertly curated datasets, human dialogue data from movies and TV shows. Content was moderated and scrubbed of explicit or harmful language, conversations promoting hate or violence, misinformation, or biases.
Accessibility: As of March 2024, there are no specific accessibility documentation
Microsoft Copilot is a chatbot developed by Microsoft that launched February 7, 2023. The service was introduced as Bing Chat but rebranded as Copilot. Copilot uses the Microsoft Prometheus language model, built upon OpenAI's ChatGPT-4 large language model, and has a similar conversational style interface to ChatGPT. Copilot is integrated into Microsoft's suite of softwares and services including Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365.
Pricing Information: Copilot has various tiers of service. There is a free tier allows use of a GPT-4 model during non-peak times. Copilot pro is $20/month and allows for more functionality.
Corpus and training data: GPT includes publicly available information on the internet, information licensed from a third party, information provided by users or human trainers.
For the first type, GPT uses information that is freely and openly available on the Internet. This does not include information behind paywalls or on the dark web. GPT applies filters to remove information that it does not want the model to learn from or output, such as hate speech, adult content, personal information, or spam. GPT does not copy or store training information in a database. Instead, it learns about association between words and those learnings help the model up date its numbers/weights. The model then uses those weights to predict and generate new words in response to a user request.
Benchmarks and guardrails: As stated by OpenAI, a large amount of data on the internet relates to people. OpenAI uses training information only to help our models learn about language and how to understand and respond to it. OpenAI does not and will not user personal information in training information to build profiles about people, to contact them, to advertise to them, to try to sell them anything, or sell the information itself.
Large Language Model
Corpus and training data includes a "diverse dataset that is both multimodal and multilingual, incorporating web documents, books, code, and media data." Source
Accessibility - As of March 2024, there are no specific accessibility documentation for Gemini
Introducing Gemini: our largest and most capable AI model - Google Blog
Google cut a deal with Reddit for AI training data - The Verge
Large Language Model with an API designed to "integrate bias-mitigated, historically accurate AI functionalities into various applications."
Corpus and training data is "specifically trained on African American historical and cultural data to embed more diverse perspectives into products."
Accessibility - As of March 2024, there are no specific accessibility documentation for Latimer
Large Language Model
Corpus and training data is primarily the open web but Pi doesn't yet Pi doesn’t have access to information after November 2022
Accessibility - As of March 2024, there are no specific accessibility documentation for Pi
One of the challenges of AI has been keeping track of the tools that are available. Included are only a few options that offer interesting ways of using AI.
If you'd like to learn about other tools, Ithaka S+R is maintaining a list of General AI Tools.
goblin.tools is a collection of small, simple, single-task tools, mostly designed to help neurodivergent people. Most tools will use AI technologies - currently they're using OpenAI's models.
This includes:
goblin.tools is free and the creator plans that they will stay free without ads or paywalls. Mobile apps are available on Android and iOS.
TrevorAI is a planner and task scheduling app that offers the ability to connect to your calendars and create a plan of your tasks, due dates, and appointments. It offers AI tools to help with scheduling and with creating action plans related to specific tasks.