AI TOOLS FOR BEGINNERS
You know the tech by now – but where’s the best place to start? Look no further…
Google Alphabet
It would be an omission if we didn’t give Google its own entry here, simply because its suite of tools, AI-based and otherwise, is so widely used worldwide: over 90 percent of all search queries are handled by Google, and more than two-thirds of all internet users choose its browser, Chrome. The company and its products have their critics, of course, but that doesn’t mean we should discount its AI chatbot Gemini, the Google AI Studio – which covers tools such as Google Translate and Notebook LM – or its Grow With Google courses, all of which are orbited by community forums full of people who will help you point out where Google gets AI right… and wrong.
Conversational chatbots
While ChatGPT is the leading chatbot – and can be extremely useful for answering questions, explaining concepts and so on – keep an eye out for its many equally useful competitors, the aforementioned Gemini among them. These apps are typically free, albeit with a daily prompt quota in many cases, and subscriptions are often required for access to the more advanced models.
Be careful, though. As we already know, chatbots are prone to delivering inaccurate information, they don’t guarantee that your data is safe, and friendly as they may seem, they’re not your friend: they are artificial intelligences designed to look familiar.
Create visual arts
Fancy a shot at some AI art? Beginners’ tools include the aforementioned ChatGPT, as well as Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, Perchance, Gencraft, Pixlr, Canva and Google Art, which can bring your text prompts to life in a matter of seconds.
The main challenge, in our experience, is creating art that doesn’t look generically AI-made, as so much stuff you see online definitely is. And check the detail: many AI-generated images look good from afar, but look closer and you may find tell-tale mistakes like additional or misplaced limbs (such as in the example pictured) – a common issue with current models. The key, as always with generative AI, is to be very specific about what you want, apply visual effects sparingly and avoid coming up with the regrettably titled ‘AI slop’, an unkind but accurate descriptor for rather a lot of AI images.
Writing assistants
Grammar assistants, plagiarism checkers, and general writing assistants such as Quillbot, can prove useful if you need help proofreading your work, want to adjust the tone of an email so it’s more professional or friendly, or if you simply need help drafting ideas. See also the similar Aria, a text-summariser available as part of the Opera browser, and other apps such as Rytr, Wordtune, Sudowrite and Grammarly.
Some principles to bear in mind: AI grammar checks usually follow US rather than UK rules by default; educational and publishing institutions object to, if not ban, the use of AI-generated text (many will run checks to catch such violations); and crucially, the stuff is not (yet) as rigorous, elegant, versatile, substantial, or as ‘human’ as text produced by people.
Video makers and editors
Video editing is actually easier than you think; it’s the creative element of structuring a story that is the real challenge. Nevertheless, apps such as Adobe Express, Runway, Filmora, OpusClip, the aforementioned Canva and more will help you not only with bolting the frames together, some of them will also create video from your text prompts.
The accuracy and creative value of the results obviously vary, so try a few different tools out before you commit to any particular one for your filmic magnum opus. You might need to swot up on film grammar before you get started (a completed film is a story, a scene is a paragraph, a shot is a word and a still frame is a letter).
Music
Feeling musical today? Head to Suno and Udio, apps that will help you get your musical compositions laid out on screen based on a simple prompt. Adjust various factors for mood, tempo and so on and hit ‘Create’: a piece of music will then magically appear, although whether it’s any good is entirely subjective.
Warning: actual musicians may not react well to this kind of creativity-usurping app taking over their jobs, and also the music itself may turn out to be somewhat unpalatable. We typed “Write some very fast death metal with a xylophone melody in C sharp” into both of them, and the neighbours are still complaining.
Presentations
Presentations – the bane of any student or office exec’s life. Still, apps such as Prezi, Beautiful.ai and Gamma are there to help you where a traditional desktop program can’t. Instead of dragging text boxes around, worrying about spelling mistakes, finding appropriate images to use, getting graphs to look professional and all the other nonsense that we’ve all done at 10pm the night before a meeting, the AI will respond to your requests (“stick a picture of a smiling sales rep here”) and save you a whole lot of bother. If only it would stand up in front of the marketing department and actually deliver the presentation, too.
These apps tend to come with a subscription fee, as they are typically geared towards businesses, but some will offer free trials if you just need to make the occasional slide deck.
SuperFile.ai
One admin task that AI can really help with is file management. Ever tried to edit a PDF? Attach a large file to an email? Convert an mp3 to a wav? Batch-process a bunch of jpegs? Reformat a Mac Pages document for PC? Chances are that you have, if you have any kind of computer-based admin job, and what a pain those jobs are. They all have workable solutions, usually involving getting a website to help you and hoping they don’t charge you for it, but a single AI tool like SuperFile can help you with various tasks and save a whole lot of hassle.
Transcription tools and note takers
We’ve looked at audio-to-text apps elsewhere, but let’s return to Otter, Supernormal and Any2text for a quick reminder how useful these can be. The time you save by not having to write up any chunk of audio will be significant, whether it’s meeting summaries, interview recordings or dictated notes. You may also have noticed the likes of Microsoft, Google and Zoom integrating AI features into their video conferencing apps to perform similar tasks.
But be aware that some of them are expensive if you buy the full suite of tools, and in some cases there’s no guarantee that your data remains private. Check with your school/university/company’s head of information and/or IT if you’re in any doubt, as this field is new, developing and largely unregulated.
Python
Depending on your point of view, coding is either the most interesting field of activity in decades, or even duller than watching paint stay wet. If you fall into the former camp and fancy giving coding a shot, you could do worse than study Python, the programming language behind Google, Wikipedia and a host of modern platforms. The language has won awards for its ease of use and versatility, and its user numbers have spiralled in recent years, so you won’t be alone.
Now, this isn’t an AI app per se, of course: it’s a way into creating AI apps. Maybe you’ll be a hotshot AI programmer in the 2030s – who knows?