Large language models (LLMs) have recently exploded in both technological sophistication and popularity.
A Large Language Model (LLM) is a type of artificial intelligence algorithm that uses deep learning techniques and massive datasets to understand, summarize, generate, and predict new content in natural language processing (NLP) tasks.
LLMs apply neural network techniques with lots of parameters to process and understand human languages or text using self-supervised learning techniques. They can recognize, translate, predict or generate text or other content.
This allows for conversations about subjects ranging from simple fun to complex legal or scientific matters.
Claude has quickly risen to fame as one of the world’s most advanced LLMs. It combines an impressive ability to reason and communicate with a truly revolutionary level of working memory (tokens).
And on top of that, the large context size means that it’s particularly well suited to writing large amounts of text. Or, conversely, reading large amounts of text and writing out new information based on what it remembers.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get full access to Claude. Among other usage restrictions, it’s only available to people in the US and UK (at the time of writing this article).
This has led many people to look for an alternative to Claude. And, thankfully, there are a number of options out there.
The following are some great alternatives to Claude, so let’s see each one below.
Keep in mind that some of the following tools use well-established LLM models under the hood (such as GPT-3.5, GPT-4 etc), but they enhance these LLM models with extra features in order to make text creation easier and more useful.
1) ChatGPT
ChatGPT is arguably the most famous LLM. It’s the brainchild of OpenAI, which had previously created the widely used GPT 2 model.
ChatGPT launched with a massively updated version, GPT-3.5. And this was followed up by GPT-4.
At the moment GPT-3.5 is free to use on the ChatGPT website for a limited number of tokens.
But you can access the GPT-4 LLM through OpenAI’s “ChatGPT Plus” subscription.
This costs $20/month for GPT-4 access. In addition, users gain the ability to use plugins and other new features before their rollout to non-pro users.
However, there is a significant limitation to the Plus account. OpenAI generally limits users to fifty messages through GPT-4 every three hours.
2) Google Bard
Google has a well-known interest in machine learning and AI. So it didn’t come as much of a surprise when the company released Bard shortly after OpenAI’s ChatGPT started to garner attention.
Google Bard has a few big advantages. The first, and most obvious, is the fact that Bard is developed by Google. As such it has a high level of integration with Google services.
For example, if you ask Bard a question the LLM can search the internet for additional information to inform its answer.
But this integration also extends to many other Google systems. If you ask Bard to write a program in Python it will give you the option to run the code on Google’s Colab platform.
Bard’s price is its other big advantage. Anyone with a Google account can use Bard for free.
3) Bing AI
Bing AI can be seen as somewhat analogous to Bard. Like Bard, the Bing AI has been heavily integrated into a search engine.
In the case of Bing AI that search engine is, of course, Bing. But delve a little deeper into Bing AI and you’ll discover something interesting.
Bing AI is actually built on top of GPT-4. But it’s not exactly the same form of GPT-4 that you’d experience with ChatGPT.
Bing AI is heavily integrated with the Internet through Microsoft’s Bing search. This makes it an ideal way to get up-to-date information about topics that change on a regular basis – like news or weather.
In contrast, by default, ChatGPT’s GPT-4 only has access to information prior to September 2021.
Bing AI also provides users with an exceptional amount of control over its internal systems.
The LLM has three different settings for its text generation – creative, balanced, and precise.
Creative lets Bing AI be more “imaginative” with its answers. This results in more creativity, but those flights of fancy can sometimes translate into incorrect information.
The other extreme, precise, is somewhat lacking in creativity but puts an emphasis on factually correct information.
Finally, the balanced option does exactly what the term suggests. Bing AI’s balanced option tries to balance both creativity and precise reporting.
4) HuggingChat
LLMs are largely created and maintained by large corporations due to the amount of power needed to run them.
But there’s been a recent explosion in community-driven development. This is largely thanks to the lenient licensing provided by Meta for its Llama models.
Individual developers are free to work on the Llama model to add custom functionality. And Hugging Face is the most well-known repository for those efforts.
In addition to hosting LLMs, the company also provides access to some of its models through an online chat-based interface.
This chat, HuggingChat, gives you the chance to use models specially tailored to specific tasks.
For example, it has support for Meta’s coding model and its largest general-purpose offering – Llama chat 70b. It’s among the few truly open-source competitors to Claude and ChatGPT and is totally free to use.
5) Perplexity AI
Perplexity AI was initially founded by AI experts from Google. Their stated mission was to “democratize access to knowledge”. And this mix of experience with Google, expertise with AI, and a desire to bring information to the public has resulted in something truly unique.
Perplexity AI is still in a fairly early stage of development. But it can already be seen as a Google-like search engine that actually understands the context of a question. And in that understanding, Perplexity AI can provide answers that break through even the most perplexing problems.
Perplexity AI is especially noteworthy for taking a somewhat unconventional approach to LLM usage scenarios. It is one of the more factually correct AI engines out there.
One new feature is the file upload. You can use Perplexity AI to search through pdf or text files and give you answers about the knowledge acquired from the file.
And unlike most other models, Perplexity AI tends to offer full transparency and referencing with its answers. The system tries to not only provide an answer but also show how it arrived at the solution.
The Pro version of Perplexity is $20/month and you can use GPT-4 or Claude-2 AI engines.
6) Writesonic
Writesonic was created in 2020 as an advanced tool for rapid content generation. The service offers two different options for the underlying LLM.
Users can leverage either GPT-3.5 or a version of GPT-4. The GPT-4 implementation is notable for its large context size.
OpenAI’s “Plus” account gives access to a GPT-4 implementation with 8,192 tokens. But Writesonic lets users leverage a full 32,768 tokens.
This means that the working memory of Writesonic’s GPT-4 is about four times what you’d get with ChatGPT Plus.
However, there is a catch. Writesonic has limitations on the total amount of text that can be generated with the 32k GPT-4.
The lowest-priced plan lets you generate up to 33,333 words per month with GPT-4 and costs $19/month. Increasing that word count also increases the total cost.
7) Magai
Magai aims to provide an AI experience that’s truly magical. One of its most notable traits stems from the fact that it’s not limited to use as a text generation tool.
Magai integrates a number of different technologies related to artificial intelligence into a singular whole. It’s essentially to LLMs what office suites are to text editors.
The system provides users with an impressive number of tools. One of its important features is that it integrates with both GPT-4 and Claude-2, two of the most popular LLM models out there.
Another important feature is how it helps people edit and share documents. You can generate content with Magai and then edit it with an in-chat document editor.
While doing so you can save iterations in chat folders. And even collaborate in team chats with your coworkers.
This sharing and collaboration are also designed around privacy. You can keep your work to yourself, limit it to select collaborators or share it with the world.
Magai also makes it easy to change AI personas. You can essentially tell your AI assistant to act like a data researcher, poet, reporter, or any other style that fits your needs.
And you can even add additional artistic flourish to your work with AI-based digital design tools such as AI image generation.
You can also use AI to remove background elements in images, replace them with new elements, and upscale your results.
Pricing starts at $9/month with 20,000 words (Advanced mode).
8) Poe by Quora
Poe by Quora is a chatbot service that allows users to interact with various AI-powered chatbots developed by different companies.
Poe stands for “Platform for Open Exploration,” and it is designed to be a place where people can easily interact with a number of different chatbots as mentioned above.
It is a singular interface that sits on top of multiple LLM models. The more notable options include GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Claude’s original version, and Claude’s most recent version – Claude 2 100k.
But those are really just the start of the LLM options. Poe is also developing an easy-to-use API that makes it possible to tie into almost any LLM.
This means that you can use it alongside far more than just Claude or GPT. For example, it supports Meta’s Llama 2.
All of this makes Poe an excellent choice for people who want to work with more than one LLM. Such as cases where you have some needs that are best matched with GPT and others that Llama handles better.
Currenty Poe is available as an iOS app only.
9) Rytr
Rytr leverages a proprietary variant of GPT-3 with a special focus. The system is tailored for professional use. You can see this in effect with the system’s template-based design.
This is similar in many ways to corporate communication systems. The main difference is that Rytr allows for dynamic content generation.
So you can choose some of the basic elements for your work such as templates or copywriting formats like AIDA and PAS.
You can even choose a tone of voice or “personality” for your AI to use. But once you’ve made those choices you can pass on the bulk of the work to Rytr. In many ways, it’s like heading a whole department of AI collaborators.
Its price starts at $29/month for unlimited usage.
10) Agility Writer
Agility Writer is another professionally focused model but with some interesting twists on the idea.
It’s still somewhat rare AI content writers to directly connect to the Internet. And even when they do, the tools typically just get some minor facts or recent news.
Agility Writer uses the Internet in a more human-like way. It can actually scan through online content to find out what’s earning the top Google SERPs.
The tool then takes that information as a foundation to build upon when it writes an article of its own.
The end result of this process is an article with correct and factual data of up to 7,000 words. And one that’s framed in methods similar to the top-ranking sites about that particular subject.
The downside is that these more complex results also require a more complex workflow than any of the other options.
Most of the Claude alternatives essentially function as a chatbot. You simply give the LLM a question or request and you’ll receive the text you were looking for.
However, an Agility Writer prompt is closer to a job description than a standard LLM prompt. You supply it with information such as a point of view, tone of voice, article structure, or even region.
The system even has some dynamic elements like proofreading for the article outline. But the larger amount of work that you need to put into an Agility Writer prompt can result in uniquely targeted output.
11) ChatDon (Claudeai)
ChatDon is an AI-powered chatbot service that utilizes the Claude 2 API, offering users worldwide access to the advanced language model developed by Anthropic AI.
The tool offers identical user experience as the official website and supports a 100k token limit, making it capable of handling and recalling larger amounts of information than other AI models like ChatGPT.
Key features of Claudeai.ai include its ability to interact with documents, handle programming tasks, creative writing, data analysis, text summarization, and file uploads.
The tool is currently available for free on the claudeai.ai website, and users can access it from anywhere in the world.
With this tool you will be able to bypass the current Claude restriction of only being available to US and UK residents.
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