Beyond ChatGPT And OpenAI

I’m a frequent user of generative AI, primarily for my work, but also to assist with my activities as a blogger and content creator. I subscribe to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and mainly limit my generative AI use to this service. I realize that OpenAI is becoming my new Apple, as I prefer to concentrate on one service to maximize the benefits of my subscription. I appreciate what they offer, including their services and apps.

However, OpenAI is not the only option, and I should explore other services as well. I don’t want to use Meta’s or Google’s offerings. What else is available? Perplexity? I started using it this morning and I like their offerings, but I’m still on a free plan. Do you have any suggestions besides Perplexity? What about Claude? I’m curious about their respective market shares.

Testing OpenAI Deep Research

I’m currently testing OpenAI Deep Research on two very specific subjects. So far, I’m quite impressed, not only about the end-results but also with the progress status report during the researching phase. It’s a great way to start looking into specific domains, and it gives many hints as to what to look for. Coupled with OpenAI Canvas, this is a powerful tool for a writer like me.

What a great time to be alive to test those things and see how I can take advantage of all this to be a better human.

Using the new Reeder.app∗ to read content from some Bluesky users I follow is a rather surprisingly good experience. Quote posts, replies are all beautifully rendered, like you could expect from Reeder’s developer.

I find it amusing that Apple releases a new iPhone member with Tim Cook and keep pitching Apple Intelligence as a breakthrough. Are VPs at Apple aware that Apple Intelligence is far behind everybody else and that it still in early beta? Do the engineering teams ever get poked by VPs as to where they are in their journey to bring real generative AI to Apple users? 🤭

What? HP is buying Humane remains? HP? The leader in generative AI looking for a modern, lightweight and nifty dedicated AI device to hum along their AI backend services? Silicon Valley is hard to decipher at times.

Mostly Unexcited

Tomorrow, Apple is introducing a new family member. It’s not expected to be a new HomePod with a screen, nor a lower-priced version of the Apple Vision Pro. It’s rather a low-but-wisely-priced iPhone. It’s the next iPhone trick to keep the money printing machine humming. The only thing that I’m curious about is the future cellular modem benchmarks. Supposedly made by Apple to eventually kick out Qualcomm, this modem will be under the microscope of many to see how it performs.

The other thing maybe that we could see at the same time: the next round of betas for iOS 18.4 and Apple Intelligence. But I’m not holding my breath for that one. I prefer to set my expectations very low, near zero actually, just to be sure.