There are many generative AI tools available. Some are free, some need you to create an account for, and some are subscription-based. We have outlined the most common and relevant tools for students below and described their uses.
Note that inclusion on this page is not an endorsement by the University of Sydney.
Staff and students at the University of Sydney have free access to Microsoft Copilot for Web, available at copilot.microsoft.com. This is a general-purpose generative AI tool that is capable of producing text and images.
It's important to understand the difference between generative AI 'models' and 'tools'.
The model is the neural network, the artificial intelligence 'engine'.
Large language models are models that take in text and produce text. For example, some common ones are:
'GPT-4' is a model from OpenAI released in March 2023 and is more powerful than the 'GPT-3.5' model. A more recent model is 'GPT-4o', released in May 2024.
'Gemini' is a model from Google.
'Claude 3.5' is a model from Anthropic.
Other models that take in text and produce images are based on 'diffusion' models. There are many implementations of these models in different tools.
There are other models that can produce other outputs such as video and audio.
The tool or interface is the software that you use. For example:
Microsoft Copilot for Web uses the GPT-4 model when put in 'creative mode', and uses the GPT-3.5 model otherwise, along with other models.
ChatGPT Free uses the GPT-4o and GPT-3.5 models. ChatGPT Plus gives access to the GPT-4o and GPT-4 models.
DALL-E uses a diffusion model to generate images.