AI: Student Guide to ChatGPT, CoPilot and Other AI Resources
Tools by Category
The list below highlights commonly discussed tools in higher education. It’s not exhaustive, and inclusion does not imply endorsement.
New tools are emerging constantly—even as you read this. To suggest one for inclusion, email andrea-anderson@uiowa.edu with the tool’s name and URL.
Click a product name to visit the tool. Before using any tool, we strongly recommend reviewing the company’s website, privacy policy, and terms and conditions.
For additional guidance on evaluating these tools, see the following...
- What are the best AI tools for research? Nature's guide
This will help you identify the best research AI tool for your specific task
February 17, 2025 - Which AI to Use Now: An Updated Opinionated Guide (Updated Again 2/15)
by Ethan Mollick, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
February 15, 2025 - Evaluating Generative AI Resources: Separating the Tools from the Toys
by Rachel Hendrick in LibTech Insights from CHOICE
November 13, 2024
Please remember NO AI DETECTION TOOL IS 100% ACCURATE
AI detectors are not the same as plagiarism detectors. Plagiarism detectors, like TurnItIn, are trained on paper and web content and can a compare a submission with documents that already exist and are known to have been written by humans. AI can hallucinate. AI-generated content is unique. AI is trained on an enormous amount of data, but its output is new and based on probability patterns. You can not track down the original document AI used to generate its output.
(See also Infinite Monkey Theorem -- AI is not that and is better than that because its training data already contains all the works of Shakespeare and relies on pattern matching, not creativity)
- QuillBot
Paste text or upload a doc and it will give you a likelihood percentage of AI generation
- Verify from Content Credentials
Upload an image to search its metadata
Tools with an Academic Focus
ChatPDF - Privacy Policy
No login required to try, then email or Google
Upload a PDF and ask questions about its contents (limit 2 PDFs per day for free)
Consensus Privacy policy
No login required to try once, then email, Facebook, or Google
An academic search engine powered by AI, trained on the Semantic Scholar database
Elicit Privacy Policy.svg)
Login with email, Google, or GitHub
Ask a question and receive research papers as a reply
No privacy policy available
Login with email, Google, or GitHub
Upload a paper and get an explanation
No login required
Tools to display the scholarly network among papers
Keenious Privacy Policy
Login with email, Google, or Microsoft
Upload a document and it will analyze it for you
Learnt.ai Privacy Policy
Login with email
Designed specifically for educators to create course content. Based on ChatGPT.
ReadCube Privacy Policy
Login with email
$ Site License required
Perplexity's Privacy Policy
No login required to try
More search engine-like than other tools. Xfinity subscribers can get one year Pro for free through their awards program.
Quivr Privacy & Compliance
Login with email, Google, or Microsoft
Use to create AI assistants
Research Rabbit Privacy Notice
Login with email
Discover and envision connections between academic papers and their authors using the Semantic Scholar or PubMed pools
Scispace Privacy
Login with email. or Google
Upload PDFs to extract and summarize data across papers
Scite Privacy Policy
Login with email, Google, ORCID, Facebook
$ Subscription required
Ai2 Privacy Policy
No login required to try
The training pool for other tools, with access to 200+ million research papers in science
Text Generators
Allen AI Playground
Ai2 Privacy Policy
No login required to try
A highlight of this tool is OLMo Trace, which exposes the actual training data behind the results
ChatGPT
OpenAI Privacy Policy
No login required to try
The first widely used generative text tool, launched in November 2022
Is ChatGPT down?
Claude
Anthropic Privacy Policy
Login with email or Google to try
Is Claude down?
Copilot
Microsoft Privacy Statement
No login required to try
DeepSeek
DeepSeek Privacy Policy
Login with email or Google
Is DeepSeek down?
Gemini
Use Gemini Apps with a work or school Google Account
Login with Google to try
Grok
X Privacy Policy
Login with email, Google, or Apple and use via X
Is Grok down?
Latimer
Latimer Privacy Policy
Login with email, Google, or LinkedIn
"Latimer is a large language model trained with diverse histories & inclusive voice, built to more accurately reflect the experience, culture and history of Black and brown people."
Meta AI (LlaMA)
Meta Privacy Policy
No login required to try
Pi
Inflection AI Privacy Policy
No login required to try