Introduction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved, with leading technology companies developing advanced models and services that are transforming various industries. The investments in AI across the value chain have been staggering, resulting in phenomenal returns for companies like Nvidia Corp. This article provides an overview of the latest AI TOOLS and SERVICES from major providers, highlighting their capabilities and applications.

OpenAI: ChatGPT

OpenAI has been at the forefront of AI development, with ChatGPT being one of its most notable products.

In May 2024, OpenAI introduced GPT-4o, an advanced model capable of processing text, images, and audio in real-time. GPT-4o offers rapid response times and enhanced performance in nonEnglish languages, integrating multiple modalities for efficiency. This model provides features such as data analysis, file uploads, and web browsing capabilities.

In September 2024, OpenAI introduced o1-preview, which is designed for complex reasoning tasks. The o1 series includes o1-preview and o1-mini, with the latter being a faster, cheaper model that is effective at coding.

OpenAI also introduced Canvas, a new interface for collaborative writing and coding projects, and ChatGPT Search, integrating real-time web search capabilities. A Chrome extension also allows users to set ChatGPT Search as their default search engine.

Enhancements to ChatGPT desktop applications for macOS and Windows include the “Work with Apps” feature, enabling AI to interact with content from other applications. This function streamlines coding processes, enhancing efficiency and collaboration.

Lastly, OpenAI has further advanced its AI capabilities with real-time voice features, enabling natural conversational interactions, and offering an API platform for developers to integrate advanced AI functionalities into their applications, supporting tasks like image analysis and customer support.

Anthropic: Claude

ChatGPT excels in integrations and versatility, making it ideal for various applications like coding assistance and content creation. Claude, on the other hand, stands out for its natural interaction and ethical focus, such as the latest Claude 3.5, which excels in writing, editing, and coding tasks, making it suitable for applications requiring careful handling of sensitive information.

A notable feature is “Artifacts.” This allows users to create and view interactive content alongside conversations, enhancing creativity and collaboration. Since June 2024, Artifacts have been generally available to all Claude.ai users.

Claude 3.5 also introduced a “computer use” capability, enabling the AI to interact with a user’s computer to perform tasks like moving the cursor and browsing the internet.

Google: Gemini

Google’s AI model, Gemini, assists users with web-based tasks through Chrome, automating research, purchases, and bookings. Its integration enhances user experience across applications.

Gemini 1.5 Pro boasts a 2-million-token context window, the largest among large-scale models, processing extensive inputs like entire codebases, lengthy documents, and hours of audio/video. This enables Gemini to handle complex reasoning and comprehensive analysis, making it useful for diverse applications.

Microsoft: Copilot

Microsoft has developed Copilot, an AI-powered assistant integrated into its Office suite. Copilot can essentially do everything ChatGPT can do, but it draws on data from your existing Microsoft ecosystem and workflows.

Copilot assists users in drafting documents, creating presentations, and analysing data by providing suggestions and automating repetitive tasks. This integration enhances productivity by allowing users to focus on more strategic aspects of their work while Copilot handles routine tasks.

This is how Copilot functions within key Microsoft applications:

• Excel: generates insights, identifies trends, and creates charts and graphs, streamlining data analysis.
• Word: aids in drafting, summarising, and refining documents, enhancing content quality.
• PowerPoint: suggests layouts, generates speaker notes, and provides design ideas for presentations.
• Outlook: prioritises emails, summarises threads, drafts responses, and schedules meetings.
• Teams: offers real-time meeting summaries, highlights key points, and tracks action items.

By embedding Copilot across these applications, Microsoft leverages AI to streamline workflows, reduce manual effort, and enhance overall productivity.

Perplexity AI

Perplexity calls itself a “Swiss Army Knife for information discovery and curiosity,” but it is essentially an AIpowered search engine. Think of it as a mashup of ChatGPT and Google Search — though it is not a direct replacement for either. It works like a chatbot: you ask questions, and it answers them.

It combines language models with search functionality for efficient information retrieval, offering a conversational search experience. Recently, Perplexity introduced new shopping features, “Buy with Pro” and “Snap to Shop,” to streamline online purchases.

• Buy with Pro: available to Perplexity Pro subscribers in the US, this feature allows direct product purchases through the platform, offering curated product cards with images, prices, and AI summaries. Users can save billing and shipping details securely, and enjoy free shipping on all “Buy with Pro” orders.
• Snap to Shop: similar to Google Lens, this tool lets users upload images for visual searches. The AI identifies or suggests similar products for purchase. Although this was initially created for Pro users, broader access is planned.
• Merchant Program: perplexity invites retailers to share product data, enhancing recommendation accuracy and visibility. Participating merchants receive insights into search and shopping trends.

These additions make Perplexity AI a comprehensive platform for product research and purchasing, integrating AI search with e-commerce features for an enhanced user experience.

Apple: AI integration in devices

Apple has integrated advanced AI capabilities into its devices, enhancing user experience through applications like Siri and other functionalities. The AI-driven features in iOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1 improve communication and streamline user interactions.

AI-enhanced mail features

• Writing tools: offers grammar, tone, and content suggestions.
• Priority messages: highlights urgent emails for quick attention.
• Smart reply: provides contextually appropriate response suggestions.

Adriven notification summaries: condenses multiple notifications into concise overviews to reduce overload.

• Privacy-centric AI processing:
• On-Device AI: processes tasks on the device, ensuring data security.
• Private Cloud Compute: handles complex tasks in the cloud with strict privacy standards.

Integration with OpenAI: allows advanced processing with user consent.

These advancements enhance user experience while maintaining strong privacy and security commitments.

xAI: Grok

Elon Musk’s AI venture, xAI, has quickly made significant strides in AI development.

• Grok-2 - Advanced AI Model: Grok-2 is a multimodal AI assistant integrating text and vision understanding with real-time information from the X platform. xAI also offers Grok-2 mini for efficient AI assistance. Meta, formerly Facebook, has positioned itself as a leader in AI innovation. Meta AI, its research division, focuses on open-source AI models and tools, promoting collaboration and advancing natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning.
• Colossus - The World’s Largest AI Training Cluster: xAI’s Colossus, located in Memphis, Tennessee, comprises 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs, enabling rapid AI model training.
• Recent funding and valuation: xAI secured $5 billion in funding, raising its valuation to $50 billion. Investors include Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Qatar Investment Authority.

Through these developments, xAI has established itself as a significant player in the AI sector, leveraging advanced technology and substantial financial backing.

Meta: MetaAI

Meta, formerly Facebook, has positioned itself as a leader in AI innovation. Meta AI, its research division, focuses on open-source AI models and tools, promoting collaboration and advancing natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning.

• Meta AI - Open-Source Advancements: Meta’s open-source approach has fostered significant contributions to AI. The Llama series of large language models is central to this effort.
• Llama 3.1 - Pioneering Open-Source AI: Llama 3.1 is the largest open-source AI model with 405 billion parameters, matching the performance of leading proprietary models. Its open-source nature allows developers to customise AI solutions cost-effectively. Meta collaborates with Amazon, Databricks, and NVIDIA to support AI development and deployment.
• Spirit LM - Multimodal AI Integration: Meta introduced Spirit LM, an open-source model integrating text and speech inputs and outputs, enhancing applications in automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech systems. This model promotes innovation and accessibility.
• PyTorch - Empowering AI Development: Meta’s PyTorch library supports building and training neural networks, widely adopted for its flexibility and ease of use in various AI applications.

Through these initiatives, Meta continues to advance AI research and development, fostering an open-source ethos that accelerates industry innovation.

Other killer applications

The rapid advancement of AI has led to transformative applications across creative domains, including image generation, text-to-video creation, and music composition with lyrics.

• AI image generation: AI tools like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion create realistic or artistic visuals from text descriptions, aiding advertising, design, and entertainment with rapid prototyping and creative exploration.
• Text-to-video generation: platforms like Runway’s Gen-2 and Meta’s Make-A-Video generate videos from textual inputs, revolutionising content creation for storytelling, marketing, and education.
• AI music generation with lyrics: tools like OpenAI’s Jukebox and Google’s MusicLM compose music and lyrics based on text prompts, benefitting musicians and content creators.

Conclusion

The rapid advancements in AI by major service providers are significantly enhancing user experiences across various applications. OpenAI’s multimodal GPT-4o, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot exemplify the integration of AI into daily tasks, automating complex processes and providing personalised, efficient services. Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 and Apple’s on-device AI models emphasise ethical AI usage and privacy-centric processing, ensuring responsible and secure AI integration.

As AI technology continues to evolve, we can anticipate further innovations that will transform our interactions with technology, making them more intuitive and intelligent.

This article was written with the assistance of AI.