1.7 — Let's get acquainted: the three big assistants

The generative AIs you’ll use day to day mostly come from three labs. Before going further, a distinction that avoids a lot of confusion:

🚗 The product ≠ the model. The product is the application (the chatbot you open). The model is the “engine” inside, which often changes version. Like a car brand (Tesla) and the specific model with its year (Model 3, 2026 edition). Same app, engine regularly updated.

🟢 In plain words — ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are the three apps (products); OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are the three labs that build them. The “engine” inside changes version, but the app keeps its name.

The three big ones (checked July 19, 2026):

• 🟢 ChatGPT — OpenAI. The product that popularised generative assistants in late 2022. The current family is GPT-5.5; GPT-5.5 Instant replaced GPT-5.3 Instant as the default in May 2026. It is known for versatility, ecosystem, and multimodality.
• 🟣 Claude — Anthropic. Renowned for writing, long-form reasoning, code, and its emphasis on safety. Sonnet 5 has been the default for Free and Pro since June 2026; Opus 4.8 is a high-end option and Haiku 4.5 a lighter one.
• 🔵 Gemini — Google. Integrated into the Google ecosystem (Search, Workspace), very large context (it can read very long documents in one go) and strong in multimodality. Current documentation lists Gemini 3.5 Flash as stable, with Gemini 3.1 Pro and Gemini Omni Flash in preview. A preview should not be presented as a stable production choice.

Primary sources: OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Instant, Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 5, Google — Gemini models.

🌍 And the others? The market isn’t limited to these three. Worth knowing by name: Mistral (French/European), Llama (Meta, open-source), Grok (xAI), DeepSeek. Useful if you want a European, free, or self-hosted option.

⚖️ The honest truth: there is no absolute “best.” The ranking changes every two or three months, and the right choice depends on the task (writing, code, image analysis, budget…). Don’t “marry” a single tool: know what each one does well. We’ll learn to talk to them properly in Level 2.

🧪 Mini-exercise (2 min): ask the same question to two different assistants (for example, “Explain to me what an invoice is, in 3 sentences, to a 10-year-old child”). Compare the tone and clarity. You’ve just run your first comparative test — a pro reflex.

⏳ Freshness note: these version numbers change very fast (often every 2-3 months). By the time you read this, they may have already changed. The reasoning, however, stays valid: product vs model, three big labs, no single winner.

✅ In short

• Three big assistants: ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google).
• Tell the product (the app) apart from the model (the engine, which changes version).
• No absolute “best”: the right choice depends on the task and the budget.