ChatGPT
A chat assistant that answers questions, writes, explains and brainstorms with you.
Start with AI
Never used AI before? Perfect. Here's a calm, free first week.
Your first week
- Day 1: Sign up for one chat assistant (ChatGPT or Claude) and ask it to explain itself.
- Day 2: Use it for one real task: an email, a recipe, a plan.
- Day 3: Try Perplexity for a question you'd normally Google, and click the sources.
- Day 4: Make an image with Ideogram or Gemini.
- Day 5: Turn a paragraph into a voice with ElevenLabs.
- Day 6: Build a tiny app by describing it to Lovable or Bolt.
- Day 7: Pick your favorite and keep using it. You don't need ten tools.
Student? Read the best free AI tools for students (and how to use them honestly).
Five free tools everyone should try
Claude
A thoughtful chat assistant that is great at writing, long documents and careful reasoning.
Perplexity
An AI search engine that answers with sources you can click and check.
Ideogram
Image generator that is especially good at putting readable text into images (posters, logos).
ElevenLabs
Turns text into very natural-sounding voices, plus sound effects and dubbing.
How to spot paid hype
- “#1 AI tool” lists with no date or test notes are often paid placements.
- Check for a free plan before you enter a card. Most good tools have one.
- Be careful with tools that ask for a year upfront before you've tried them.
- AI makes mistakes. Double-check facts, especially health, money and legal ones.
- Don't paste passwords or private client data into a free AI tool.