Tired of creating artificial intelligence? This resource only provides answers from peer-reviewed research

Generative AI is everywhere, whether it is used as a cornerstone of a service, used to build applications, or used to enhance functionality within them. But with so many new products popping up all the time, which ones are worth checking out?

We’re here to help with a new regular series covering the best and freshest AI apps and services you need to know about.

One of the biggest challenges AI assistants face is the vast set of “knowledge” they are taught. That’s why you’ll find someone referring to glue being especially tasty on pizza or in non-existent legal situations. Although these hallucinations have become less ridiculous over time, they are now more subtle and harder to recognize with a tired eye. That’s why I’ve started incorporating Consensus into my workflow whenever possible.

The consensus was “What if Google Scholar was an AI assistant?” answers the question. aggregating millions of peer-reviewed research papers to provide a comprehensive overview of a variety of topics. This makes scientific content more accessible to the average user who may not have the time or mental capacity to read articles cover to cover.

Not only does it present the facts, but it also highlights the references in a separate panel, neatly numbered to match the details in the answer. After reading its main content, I can click on a reference to get an overview of the document, view metadata, or download the full document if available.

Note that Consensus can be used without an account, which is a big plus considering many other AI products impose this requirement, although logging in does open up some benefits. First, AI offers a deeper literature review for members and a variety of other methods for measuring data scattered across multiple papers through the Consensus Gauge. This is how you do it, especially if you want to win a heated science-based debate.

Of course, given Consensus’ focus on theoretical research, it’s not exactly a direct foil. Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini. Although, in fact, this is not the purpose. I wish I had Consensus when I was in university, when Zotero was the most powerful tool on my Celeron laptop.

Other new AI apps and services you need to know about!

There are many other great new AI apps and services out there, including:

If you haven’t heard, there will be a small tournament this summer. Is it called the World Cup or something? Of course, at this time of the decade, many fans flock to the shops to buy football shirts, but how can you tell if the jersey is genuine or fake?

I recently came across a program called KitLegit that claims to help fans do just that. Take a picture of the shirt using your phone camera, upload it to the app and let it do its thing. If the shirt is authentic — or rather, if the app thinks the kit is authentic — it will issue a certificate of authenticity. Given the experience of some football fans online, KitLegit is not a 100% foolproof verification method.

While you should always keep apps, especially those that use artificial intelligence, with a healthy dose of skepticism, it pays to use an app that points you in the right direction.

Not everyone enjoys the big G looking over their digital shoulder NotebookLM Definitely my preferred smart AI powered notebook and reference tool, it may not appeal to those interested in degoogling or self-hosting their own solutions. This is where the open notebook comes in.

It’s effectively an open-source, self-deployable version of NotebookLM, giving users more control over how their data is stored, where it’s stored, and which AI models analyze it (18+ optional).

Given these available options, Open Notebook is a more advanced tool. You’ll need a place to put it, or the patience to learn how to use it, or the smarts to do it.

Either way, it’s great to see an open source alternative to a previously Google-only or nothing tool.

I spend an inordinate amount of my free time poring over guidebooks and atlases, planning future trips I hope to actually take around my country. Now I like to plan by hand, but I recently came across Mindtrip and it might be the most brilliant travel planner I’ve ever used.

Mindtrip is hard to describe, but it’s more like an AI-powered Wanderlog than a travel-focused ChatGPT clone, which takes your cues and turns them into skeletons for trips. This service provides everything you need to plan a trip, including suggestions for reasonable overnight stops, popular attractions along the route, and other tips and tricks.

The Discover section also provides detailed information about these attractions and encourages users to ask questions. For example, if I were a tourist visiting Cape Town, I could ask Mindtrip about the main routes to the top. When planning a field trip to Kruger National Park, I was asked if I would prefer to stay in a park or a luxury lodge. Neat!

It could definitely use some usability polish – it often feels clunky compared to its competitors – and I’d like to be able to manually drag the map route to the cities I want to travel to. Even so, given the value you can get from Mindtrip for free before creating an account, it’s worth a try for your next adventure.