I'm an AI tools expert, and these are my only two I pay for

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It's only been about two years since generative artificial intelligence (AI) hit the mainstream as a new paradigm of productivity, but here we are -- it's everywhere. 

I test AI tools as part of my work. I'll dig into just about any AI-related technology and see what I can make it do. Many of you have read my ongoing shootouts comparing AIs for programming and AI content checkers, among other kinds of tools. 

Also: The best AI for coding in 2024 (and what not to use)

But that's using AI in a rigorous lab environment to provide test results to ZDNET readers. Like many of you, I've also started to use AIs to augment my workflow and increase my productivity.

I wear a lot of hats; I run a small business with my wife, who also has her own business, where I'm the tech guy and designer. I also work with a number of industry groups. I have a fairly popular security software product for WordPress users. And I'm constantly working on projects, ranging from 3D printing the ultimate charging tower, to trying to make an AI-assisted Etsy store, to composing and publishing music and using an AI for help with some of the marketing activities.

Also: ChatGPT finally gets easier to organize on the 7th day of OpenAI

I should note that I never, ever use AI to produce my core content. No article, song, or social media post is ever written using an AI. My work product is mine. But I do use AI to help me get through other aspects of my workload.

I have a particular interest in how AI helps programming, how AI can support graphics work, and how AI can support video production.

1. ChatGPT Plus - $20/mo

Speaking of AI and programming, it has essentially doubled my programming output. I use AI to help me with common-knowledge programming. I talked about it in-depth in my 25 tips article, but the core benefit is getting ChatGPT to write code for published APIs, so I don't have to spend time searching for code examples and trying to reverse engineer comments on various programming boards.

And yes, I mentioned ChatGPT. With the exception of Perplexity, which basically uses ChatGPT, none of the other AIs I tested could reliably help me with actual code I was working on for some real-world projects. ChatGPT did.

Also: Perplexity Pro's AI absolutely aced my coding tests - but there's a catch

In fact, that's a big part of why I'm paying $20/mo for ChatGPT Plus. Sure, I've signed up and paid for some of the the other AIs just to test them, but ChatGPT Plus is the only chatbot I have found so consistently useful that I keep it as a regularly used tool.

I use ChatGPT for lots of research tasks, sometimes throwing math problems at it, and all sorts of other questions and problems I'm dealing with. While I never take its output as an unimpeachable source of truth, I do find ChatGPT to be a very useful sounding board, substantially more so than a quick Google search.

As for why I pay for ChatGPT Plus, and not, say, Google Gemini's pro version: it's because of the programming. I've done tangible tests and know it works much better. I did sign up and pay for Gemini Advanced for a few months, but it just didn't provide the value I got with ChatGPT. I also broke it really hard. Oops.

Now, to be fair, I did outline five ways that an AI could help me in Gmail. If Gemini Advanced could do these things reliably, I'd sign back up in a heartbeat. But I just don't need the current email message I'm reading summarized, and I sure don't need it to write a friendlier or more professional version of whatever I've currently written.

Also: I tested 9 AI content detectors - and these 2 correctly identified AI text every time

I also gave Notion AI a try, but found the company's pricing policy to be an immediate buzzkill. We have two Notion subscriptions, one for me and one for my wife. So when I decided to sign up for Notion AI, the very next thing I knew was I had been charged an additional $240. Notion bills annually, and won't let you sign up for the AI features on only one account.

I did manage to get the company to refund that amount and decided to just stay with ChatGPT.

2. Midjourney - $10/mo

Both the free and Plus versions of ChatGPT include access to DALL-E 3, the integrated text-to-image generative AI tool. You get more pictures in a given time period with the Plus version, but otherwise there's no real difference between the free and the Plus version.

Also: Photoshop vs. Midjourney vs. DALL-E 3: Only one AI image generator passed my 5 tests

I've had a lot of fun experimenting with DALL-E 3, including using it to generate gloriously strange images of every US state.

When I compared DALL-E and Midjourney, which I did in two comprehensive tests, the results were quite close. Both Midjourney and DALL-E 3 did great jobs with most of the images and failed with a few.

But even though I get DALL-E 3 with my $20/mo ChatGPT Plus fee, I pay an extra $10/mo for Midjourney. Why?

Some of the answer is subjective. I like a lot of the images I get with Midjourney. Midjourney also allows you to describe artist styles, and lets you riff off a vast array of stylistic choices. DALL-E 3, perhaps because of guardrails imposed by OpenAI, doesn't present as much choice. That said, I showed how DALL-E flagrantly swiped images of Snoopy and Jack Skellington, so those guardrails are a bit porous.

But I also have two specific and objective answers about why I pay for Midjourney. First, because image generation is so subjective, it's nice to have a variety of tools when seeking a representation of what you have in your head. I'll try different prompts and even the same prompts with both tools, and take what works best.

Also: How to selectively modify a Midjourney image to create an artistic statement

Second, every month I generate a promotional image for my wife's online business. She has an e-commerce site that supports a popular hobby. Each month, on her very active Facebook group, she gives a craft-along theme to her users. I generate an image for that theme. Over the months, I've found that Midjourney does a far better job of generating an image that incorporates elements of the hobby than DALL-E 3.

Because Midjourney shaves what used to be two to three hours of work pushing pixels in Photoshop to generate those images down to about 10 minutes, it's worth the $10/month to me just for that project.

Photoshop Generative Fill - Honorable mention

In the title of this article, I said I pay for two AI tools. That's sort of true. I pay for Adobe's Creative Cloud suite in addition to ChatGPT Plus and Midjourney. But since I've been using and paying for Creative Cloud, and before that Photoshop, since way before there was generative fill, I'm not counting it in my AI tools list.

If Adobe removed generative fill tomorrow, I'd still pay for Photoshop. To be clear, I don't like paying for it. It's costly, and the two computer license limitation is restrictive. But a few years back, I tried switching to Affinity Photo, which at the time was $50 (it's now $70). That one-time fee is roughly what I pay each month for Creative Cloud, so it had a lot of potential.

To be clear, Affinity Photo is a fine application. But I've been using Photoshop since before Bill Clinton was president. To say I have Photoshop muscle memory is an understatement. It's a product I use almost every day, and have since before there was an internet. Switching to another application, while I could do it if I have to, slowed down my workflow considerably.

Also: I use Photoshop's AI tool every day - here are my 5 essential tips for the best results

So, I don't consider my monthly expense for Creative Cloud to be an AI expense. That said, I find generative fill (and its various other AI tricks) to be very helpful. I often use it in concert with Midjourney and DALL-E 3.

What do you use?

Do you pay for any AI tools? Which ones, and why? Is there an AI tool that you strongly recommend I should be using that I didn't mention? Feel free to answer these questions and let us know your thoughts on AI subscriptions in the comments below.

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