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 (state of mid-2026):

• 🟢 ChatGPT — OpenAI. The one that kicked it all off in late 2022, the best known to the general public. Flagship engine: GPT-5.5 (a fast “Instant” variant and a “Thinking-Pro” variant for reasoning); by default, the app often serves GPT-5.3 Instant. Renowned for its versatility, its ecosystem, and multimodality (text, image, voice).
• 🟣 Claude — Anthropic. Renowned for writing, long-form reasoning, code, and its emphasis on safety. Engines: Opus 4.8 (the most powerful), Sonnet 4.6 (balanced, speed/quality), Haiku 4.5 (light and economical).
• 🔵 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. Family: Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini 3.1 Pro (reasoning), Gemini Omni (generate almost anything from anything).

🌍 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.