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Perplexity AI features: OpenAI GPT-3 and GPT-4 | Has access to the internet and current events | Provides prompt suggestions to get chats started | Free

Perplexity AI is a free AI chatbot that is connected to the internet, provides sources, and has a very enjoyable UI. As soon as you visit the site , using the chatbot is straightforward and simple. All you have to do is type your prompt into the ask anything box to get started.

Because of the extensive prompts it gives users to try, this is a great chatbot for experimenting with and flushing out ideas. For example, underneath the textbox, it has a “Popular Now” section where it includes the most popular prompts and news. All you have to do is click on them to learn more about the topic and chat about it. Additionally, Perplexity provides related topic questions you can click on to keep the conversation going.

Also: These are my 4 favorite AI chatbot apps for Android

If you don’t know exactly what you want to ask the chatbot, but know you want to start chatting about something, you can start typing in the prompt box and autofill suggestions will populate underneath, making it easier to come up with an initial prompt.

Another perk is that there is an app for both iOS and Android, allowing you to also tinker with the chatbot while you’re on the go.

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Jasper features: Uses OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 | Summarizes texts and generate paragraphs and product descriptions | Checks for plagiarism and grammar | Starts at $39 per month

Like ChatGPT, Jasper also uses natural language processing to generate human-like responses. Jasper even uses the same language model as ChatGPT, OpenAI’s GPT-3 , which was created by the AI research company behind ChatGPT.

With Jasper, you can input a prompt for what you want to be written and it will write it for you, just like ChatGPT would. The major difference with Jasper is that it has an extensive amount of tools to produce better copy. Jasper can check for grammar and plagiarism and write in over 50 different templates including blog posts, Twitter threads, video scripts, and more.

If you need to generate written copy every day for your business, Jasper is the tool for you. However, at a $39-a-month cost, it is an investment.

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YouChat features: Uses OpenAI’s GPT-3 | Lists sources for the text it generates | Unlike most other Chatbots, uses Google sources | Free

YouChat also uses OpenAI’s GPT-3. With YouChat, you can input a prompt for what you want to be written and it will write it for you, just like ChatGPT would for free. The chatbot outputs an answer to anything you input including math, coding, translating, and writing prompts. A huge pro for this chatbot is that, because it lacks popularity, you can hop on at any time and ask away.

Another major pro is that this chatbot cites sources from Google, which ChatGPT does not because it doesn’t have internet access. For example, if you ask YouChat “What is soda?”, it will produce a conversational text response and cite sources from Google specifying where it pulled its information from. The chatbot is just as functional, without annoying capacity blocks, and has no cost.

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Google Bard features: Powered by PaLM 2, created by Google | Includes a Google it” feature | Generates clear text quickly | Free

Bard is Google’s experimental, conversational, AI chat service. Over a month after it was announced, Google opened up the waitlist for its chatbot on Mar. 21, 2023.

Also: What is Google Bard? Here’s everything you need to know

Unlike most of the chatbots on this list, Google does not use a large language model in the GPT series but instead uses a lightweight version of LaMDA, a model made by Google.

ZDNET got access to the bot and upon testing, it saw that the chatbot’s abilities to code and function as a search engine were not the chatbot’s forte. However, the chatbot performed well as a text assistant that can edit text and write professional documents, including resumes, cover letters, professional summaries, and more.

Also: Google Bard is stepping up its AI game with these new features

Another major perk is that Google Bard is free to use, so if you need resume or essay help in a pinch, it can be a good resource. To get access, you have to join a waitlist. You can find step-by-step instructions here.

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Socratic features: From Google | Type in any question to generate a response | Includes fun graphics | Supports scanning worksheets to get a specially curated answer | Free

If you want your child to also take advantage of AI to lighten their workload, but still have some limits, Socratic is for you. With Socratic, children can type in any question they may have about what they are learning in school and Socratic will generate a conversational, human-like response with fun unique graphics to help break down the concept.

Also: 5 ways ChatGPT can make parenting easier this summer

The app, available on the App Store and the Google App Store, also has a feature that lets your kid scan their worksheet to get a specially curated answer. The app does have some limitations; for example, it will not just write an essay or story when prompted. However, this could be a positive thing because it curbs your child’s temptation to get a chatbot, like ChatGPT, to write their essay for them.

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Socratic features: Clean, Chat-GPT inspired interface | entirely customizable | great for developers or AI fanatics | secure alternative | Free

As seen by the list above, plenty of great chatbot options are on the market. However, if you are on the search for a chatbot that serves your use case specifically, you can always build an entirely customizable new one. HuggingChat is an open-source chatbot developed by Hugging Face that can be used as a regular chatbot or customized for your needs.

Also: Want to build your own AI chatbot? Say hello to open-source HuggingChat

As ZDNET’s David Gewirtz unpacked in his hands-on article , you may not want to depend on HuggingChat as your go-to primary chatbot. However, it is a good interface to build your own chatbot on. As Gewirtz said himself: “If you want something that you control, you can use HuggingChat to build a chatbot where you have visibility into every aspect of its functioning. You can choose to make that chatbot available online to other users and provide transparency to all users.”

Which AI chatbot is right for you?

While the new Bing is my personal favorite, your use case may be hyper-specific or have certain demands. If you need a constant, reliable AI chatbot, other alternatives might be better suited for you. If you just want an AI chatbot that produces clean copy, for example, then Jasper is for you. If you want to play around with an AI chatbot that isn’t always at capacity, YouChat might be the best option.

Also: OpenAI’s ChatGPT is scary good at my job, but it can’t replace me (yet)

Lastly, if there is a child in your life, Socratic might be worth checking out. See our breakdown below:

Use this AI chatbot

If you want…

The new Bing

The best AI chatbot overall, an AI chatbot that works like a search engine with up-to-date information on current events, links back to sources, and is free and easy to use.

ChatGPT

The blueprint for chatbots, encompassing a wide range of skills beyond writing, including coding, conversation, and math equations, and is available to the public at no cost.

Perplexity.ai

An AI chatbot that is the best choice for experimenting or playing around with an chatbot as it provides suggestions for prompts and is easy to use.

Jasper

An AI chatbot that is the best choice for businesses and marketers, with more than 50 different writing templates, copyediting features, and a plagiarism checker, making it an investment worth the monthly cost.

YouChat

A ChatGPT alternative that is readily available, always accessible, sources information from Google, and lacks cost, making it ideal for those who need a ChatGPT-like experience without annoying capacity blocks.

Chatsonic

An AI chatbot that is the best choice for news content creators, with its ability to offer up-to-date news and stories related to current events, and its additional features, including voice dictation, AI image generation, and more.

Google Bard

An AI chatbot that can give you free, specific writing advice and generate text for essays, resumes, cover letters, and more.

Socratic by Google

The best AI chatbot for kids and students, offering educational, fun graphics. It has a unique scanning worksheet feature to generate curated answers, making it a useful tool to help children understand concepts they are learning in school.

HuggingChat

An AI chatbot best for someone interested in building or exploring how to build their very own chatbot.

How did I choose these AI chatbots?

In order to curate the list of best AI chatbots and AI writers, I looked at the capabilities of each individual program including the individual uses each program would excel at. As an AI reporter, I was also sure to test each one myself. Other factors I looked at were reliability, availability, and cost.

What is an AI chatbot?

An AI chatbot (also called AI writer) refers to a type of artificial intelligence-powered program that is capable of generating written content from a user’s input prompt. AI chatbots are capable of writing anything from a rap song to an essay upon a user’s request. The extent of what each chatbot is specifically able to write about depends on its individual capabilities including whether it is connected to a search engine or not.

How do AI chatbots work?

AI chatbots use language models to train the AI to produce human-like responses. Some are connected to the web and that is how they have up-to-date information, while others depend solely on the information they are trained with.

How much do AI chatbots cost?

AI chatbot programs vary in cost with some being entirely free and others costing as much as $600 a month. ChatGPT and YouChat are entirely free to use since both are still in their testing phases. Services like ChatSonic can cost up to $650 a month for 2,000,000 words and 15 seats.

What is the difference between an AI chatbot and an AI writer?

The main difference between an AI chatbot and an AI writer is the type of output they generate and their primary function.

In the past, an AI writer was used specifically to generate written content, such as articles, stories, or poetry, based on a given prompt or input. An AI writer’s output is in the form of written text that mimics human-like language and structure. On the other hand, an AI chatbot is designed to conduct real-time conversations with users in text or voice-based interactions. The primary function of an AI chatbot is to answer questions, provide recommendations, or even perform simple tasks, and its output is in the form of text-based conversations.

While the terms AI chatbot and AI writer are now used interchangeably by some, the original distinction was that an AI writer was used for generating written content, while an AI chatbot was used for conversational purposes. However, with the introduction of more advanced AI technology, such as ChatGPT, the line between the two has become increasingly blurred. Some AI chatbots are now capable of generating text-based responses that mimic human-like language and structure, similar to an AI writer.

Are there alternative AI chatbots worth considering?

Yes! Despite the new Bing’s immense popularity, there are some major downsides to the AI chatbot, including that it is not always available. If you want to give the world of AI chatbots and AI writers a try, there are plenty of other options to consider. We deep-dived into five alternatives above, and some more below.

Read more about the best tools for your business and the right tools when building your business !

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The 15 best robots and AI tech we saw at CES 2024

CES 2024 is full of AI-infused products and robots that aim to make your life easier. Here’s the full rundown.

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Ogmen Robotics’s Oro pet companion robot was on display at CES 2024.

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET

Artificial intelligence (AI) remains one of the buzziest technologies around, and it’s no surprise that it’s been a main attraction at CES 2024. Although AI was mainly represented in chatbots in the past year, companies are now finding more innovative ways to incorporate the technology into hardware, including everything from futuristic robots to laptops and onto products that would have never been possible before.

Also: Best of CES 2024: ZDNET editors’ top picks

With so many AI-related announcements at CES this year, it can be difficult to distinguish between what’s simple AI hype and what’s actual visionary technology. To help you understand what tech is most important, I’ve created a roundup of the AIs and robots that have distinguished themselves from the rest based on factors such as helpfulness, uniqueness, and real-world applications.

To find out my top picks for the best AI-infused products at CES 2024, keep reading. Also, most of my picks have won CES 2024 Innovation Awards, which shows just how good these devices are.

The Bmind Smart Mirror claims to be the world’s first AI-powered smart mirror for mental wellness, according to manufacturer Baracoda. Leveraging generative AI, the mirror can provide personalized recommendations, such as light therapy sessions, guided meditation, and self-affirmations based on your mental state, to help improve your mood and manage stress.

When I demoed the mirror, it asked me how my day was, and for testing purposes, I said it went terribly. Immediately, the mirror said encouraging words to me, switched the lights to a calming blue color, displayed an image of nature, and encouraged me to start a meditation session.

The mirror was even recognized as a CES 2024 Innovation Award Honoree in the Smart Home category.

If you are a dog mom like me, you’re probably always thinking of ways you could make your pet’s quality of life better. Invoxia’s Minitailz dog collar is a fitness tracker for your dog, and can help you better understand what they need.

The tracker detects a dog’s GPS location to ensure your fur baby never gets lost, along with health stats, such as resting heart rate and breathing. The company claims that the collars can detect early signs of heart failure before the onset of symptoms. The collar also offers AI-driven activity detection with real-time alerts that can let the pet owner know exactly what their best friend is doing.

The Minitailz Smart Dog Collar was recognized as a CES 2024 Innovation Award Honoree in the Artificial Intelligence category.

If you are interested, the Minitailz collar is available for $99. However, there is also a subscription fee of $25 a month or $275 a year.

The Wim first caught my attention because I had never seen an apparatus like it. Upon learning more, I realized that the technology was as innovative as it looked. The product is meant to assist with walking and exercising in a safe and efficient manner by providing proper support.

Wim also includes personalized AI coaching that can help enhance your exercise experience by adjusting the intensity and timing, and providing customized programs. The insights can help with non-exercise coaching, such as improving walking performance. This information could be especially helpful for people recovering from injuries or for individuals with mobility challenges. When I tried the tech on, I was surprised to see how natural it felt and how unobstructed my walking was.

The product — from South Korea’s WIRobotics — was recognized as a CES 2024 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Accessibility & Aging Tech, Robotics category.

Sales for the product will begin in February, and I was not informed about pricing.

The Holobox makes hologram communication, which has typically been limited to sci-fi movies, a reality. The box resembles a telephone booth and can display a real-life hologram of the person you are talking to, as long as they are in front of a white, well-lit background. They can communicate with you in nearly no latency, and even if you aren’t in front of a white background yourself, the other call participant can still see you via monitor, like a standard Zoom call instead of a hologram.

You can click here for a snippet of my experience, where I got to chat with the hologram of Holoconnects’ CEO, Andre Smith.

Although the technology seems complicated, it is a ‘plug and play’ system, requiring only an outlet and the internet to function. The company also offers a desktop version, fittingly called the Holobox Mini. The website does not reveal the cost of its solutions, but interested customers can request a pricing list.

One of the most popular and practical robots is the robot vacuum. But a popular complaint about the devices is that no matter how efficient they are, they can often miss certain corners or nooks of your living space. Ecovocs addresses that issue by including a stick vacuum with its robot vacuum.

Also: The best robot vacuums, mops, and mowers from CES 2024

The charging station for the actual robot vacuum holds a concealed stick vacuum, which you can assemble to form a Matter-certified wireless stick vacuum with 8000Pa of suction. Now, if your robot misses something, getting to it yourself is easier.

The vacuum will be available at the end of March for $1,599.

Ballie, the circular household assistant robot, isn’t new to Samsung — it first launched in 2020. However, at this year’s CES, Samsung showcased a revamped Ballie with new capabilities and AI features. The robot can now do everything from projecting video to managing home appliances.

Having watched the Samsung demo in person, I must say that I am not only impressed, but would welcome the cute little basketball-looking robot into my home. Click here to view some snippets of Ballie’s demo I got to see at CES. Ballie was recognized as a CES 2024 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Robotics category.

Samsung didn’t disclose when it will be available or how much it will cost.

Although this looks like an ordinary tabletop mirror, the Anura MagicMirror can do more than just show your reflection. With a 30-second face scan, the mirror can gather your health data, such as heart rate and blood pressure. Click here to watch my experience.

I got to demo the technology at CES, and it’s as easy and intuitive to use as it sounds. The mirror was recognized as a CES 2024 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Digital Health category.

Although it seems like a fun gadget to have in your home, the PR team informed me that the intended audience is B2B organizations, such as doctors’ offices or gyms.

12. Nobi Smart Lamp
Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET
Nobi's smart lamps can ensure your older loved ones stay safe by doubling as fall detectors. The lamps use AI to detect when a person has fallen. After it detects the fall, it will notify designated emergency contacts, who can then talk to the fallen individual via the lamp, and even see the position the person is lying in.
At CES, the company announced the introduction into the US market, as well as the Nobi Ceiling, which is a ceiling version of its smart pendant lamp. From seeing it in person, I was amazed at how much like a regular lamp it looked.

If you have read any of my CES roundups, you probably picked up on the fact that I love dogs. The Ilume Dog Wellbeing Smart Suite is a device I am particularly excited about because it has the potential to improve the quality of dogs’ lives significantly, and what could be better than that?

The Smart Tracker is placed on your dog’s collar to track its behavior throughout the entire day. Then, based on your dog’s activity levels and sleep, it lets you know the exact amount of food you should be feeding your dog for breakfast and dinner. The bowl has a button that will light up green when you have fed the proper amount or red when it’s over or under, eliminating the need for measuring cups.

I personally have met so many overweight dogs who could lose some pounds, and this device eliminates the guesswork, helping the pet parents feed them the perfect amount of food and allowing them to get to an ideal lifestyle soon.

Although it just launched at CES, the Ilume Dog Wellbeing Smart Suite is available for purchase at $250, which includes the smart tracker, the hub, and the bowl.

If you have ever wanted an AI assistant that can just do things for you without the need for lengthy and detailed prompts, the Rabbit might be the device for you. The pocket-sized Rabbit leverages AI to act as a personal assistant that can use apps for you.

Also: This AI startup made a $199 gadget that replaces apps with ‘rabbits’ – and it might just work

Essentially, the R1 eliminates having to scramble to find the right app on your phone, and then follows through to complete the action you need. With the device, you can have some “rabbits” complete the task for you from start to finish, simply by telling it what end result you want done. Click here to watch ZDNET editor Kerry Wan’s hands-on experience.

The device is $199 and is available for preorder.

CES 2024