AI
5 min read
AI Notes May 2025

Q1 2025 AI‑tool roundup — everything worth your time
General AI tools
- ChatGPT (o3) — 120 k‑token multimodal reasoning, faster than GPT‑4. https://chat.openai.com
- Claude Max — 500 k‑token chats, Artifacts for code/games, built‑in prompt tuner. https://claude.ai
- Perplexity — Adds Deep Research mode and WhatsApp fact‑check replies. https://www.perplexity.ai
- Gemini 1.5 Pro — Inline image editing in 45 languages. https://gemini.google.com
- Microsoft Copilot — “Pages” saves research threads; new Spanish voices. https://copilot.microsoft.com
- Exa Search — Hybrid semantic+keyword search API for docs and e‑commerce. https://exa.ai
- DeepSeek R1‑Omni — 671 B open‑weights, 200 k context, free for research. https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1
- Lambda Inference API — Pay‑per‑token gateway to every major frontier model. https://lambdalabs.com/inference
- LG EXAONE Deep 32 B — Laptop‑friendly model scoring near GPT‑4 on STEM tasks. https://huggingface.co/LGAI-EXAONE/EXAONE-Deep-32B
- Llama 3 (8 B/70 B) — Best‑performing open LLM; booming plugin ecosystem. https://ai.meta.com/blog/meta-llama-3
- Zapier MCP — One prompt triggers 8 000+ SaaS actions; perfect for agents. https://zapier.com/mcp
Creative AI tools
- Adobe Illustrator — Generative Shape Fill packs outlines with vector art. https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/ai.html
- ArchiVinci — Sketch‑to‑photo architectural renders. https://archivinci.com
- Flair — Drag‑and‑drop product shoots, now with fashion‑model mode. https://flair.ai
- Morphic — Storyboarding‑to‑final cut film studio in the browser. https://morphic.com
- Midjourney V7 — Draft mode, better logos, new editor. https://midjourney.com
- Leonardo AI — Real‑time canvas, style refs, 3‑D mesh export. https://leonardo.ai
- Story Diffusion — Keeps comic characters consistent across panels. https://storydiffusion.ai
- DALL·E 3 — Region editing and in‑painting inside ChatGPT. https://labs.openai.com
- Adobe Firefly Structure Reference — Lock layout, vary style/content. https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2024/03/26/new-structure-reference-capabilities-adobe-firefly-bring-new-level-creative-control-ideation
- Khroma — AI color‑scheme generator that learns your taste. https://khroma.co
- AutoDraw — Quick‑sketch helper for wireframes. https://autodraw.com
- Fontjoy — One‑click font pairing. https://fontjoy.com
- Botika — AI fashion models for Shopify images. https://botika.io
- Freepik AI Suite — Scene‑locked “Composition Reference” generation. https://freepik.com/ai
- Magnific — 4× image upscale with prompt‑guided detail. https://magnific.ai
- Presti — Drops real furniture into AI‑generated rooms. https://presti.ai
- IC Light V2 — Text‑guided portrait relighting. https://iclightai.com
- Krea 3‑D Objects — Image‑to‑textured mesh in seconds. https://krea.ai
- Flora — Team canvas chaining text, image and video models. https://flora.so
- Stable Virtual Camera — Turn 32 photos into explorable 3‑D scenes. https://stability.ai/vcam
UI‑design AI tools
- Uizard — Multi‑screen mock‑ups from text. https://uizard.io
- Galileo — Prompt‑to‑polished UI screens. https://usegalileo.ai
- Dora — No‑code 3‑D website builder with WebGL export. https://dora.run
- Webflow AI Site Builder — Beta turns a brief into a hosted site. https://webflow.com/updates/ai-site-builder
- Figma “First Draft” — Relaunched AI layout generator. https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/24/24253252/figma-ai-make-designs-first-draft-app-ui-generator
- Attention Insight — Heat‑map gaze prediction plug‑in. https://attentioninsight.com/figma-plugin
- Operative.sh — Agent‑driven UX tests with screenshots. https://operative.sh
- Scene 2.0 — Whiteboard‑to‑website on one canvas. https://scene.so
- AI CSS Animations — Text prompt → production keyframes. https://aicss.dev
- Same.dev — Clone any live site into editable React code. https://same.dev
- Google Firebase Studio — Prompt‑to‑full‑stack app in the browser. https://firebase.google.com/studio
Video AI tools
- Runway Gen‑4 — “References” lock character and style across shots. https://runwayml.com
- Dream Machine (Ray 2) — Image‑to‑4‑sec cinematic clip with physics. https://lumalabs.ai/dream-machine
- Amazon Nova Reel 1.1 — Two‑minute text‑to‑video via Bedrock, 80 % cheaper. https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock
- Pika Pikaswaps — Actor/background swaps with a prompt. https://pika.art
- Gemini Video Generator — Sentence‑to‑scored, animated scene. https://ai.google.dev/gemini-video
- Descript — Eye‑contact correction, overdub, storyboard edits. https://www.descript.com
- Viggle — Motion‑transfer characters, greenscreen ready. https://viggle.ai
- Synthesia — 4‑K avatars, gesture control, 170+ voices. https://synthesia.io
- Facefusion — GPU‑accelerated open‑source face‑swap. https://github.com/facefusion/facefusion
- Deep Live Cam — Real‑time deepfake streaming for VTubers. https://github.com/hacksider/Deep-Live-Cam
- Revid.ai — Text‑to‑TikTok/IG/YouTube shorts. https://revid.ai
- Riverside — Lossless recording, text‑based edits. https://riverside.fm/video-editor
- FLUX 1.1 — Free text/image‑to‑video with Kling styles. https://flux-ai.io/flux-video-ai
- HeyGen — Face‑swap plus multilingual avatar VO. https://heygen.com
- Arcads — Marketing‑copy‑to‑ad video for Meta/TikTok. https://arcads.ai
- Filmora AI — Auto‑cut, style transfer, filler‑word removal. https://filmora.wondershare.com
- Keytake — Docs/URLs → narrated explainer videos. https://keytake.ai
Music & audio AI tools
- Suno V4.5 — Two‑track mix, better vocals in 30 s. https://suno.com
- Udio — Full songs, comedy skits, stems export. https://udio.com
- ElevenLabs Sound FX — Text‑to‑sound effects + voices. https://elevenlabs.io/sound-effects
- Play HT — 200+ ultra‑real voices, low‑latency API. https://play.ht
- Artlist AI Voiceover — 13 languages, Premiere plug‑in. https://artlist.io/blog/ai-voiceover-new-features
- Hume Octave — Emotion‑aware TTS with controllable tone. https://hume.ai/octave
- SoundHound Chat AI — In‑car voice assistant, food ordering. https://soundhound.com/soundhound-chat-ai
- ElevenLabs Text‑to‑Bark — Speech for pet‑tech toys. https://elevenlabs.io
- Amazon Nova Sonic — Real‑time expressive voice via Bedrock. https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock
- Synthflow — AI caller books meetings, logs CRM notes. https://synthflow.ai
- Shamaze — Bedtime stories read back in your cloned voice. https://shamaze.app
Marketing AI tools
- Jasper — Brand‑voice controls, role permissions. https://jasper.ai/updates
- Aha — AI influencer team, ROI dashboard. https://aha.inc
- Virallyst — Tests hooks, rewrites captions, auto‑posts. https://virallyst.com
- Warmy — Domain warm‑up, new 2025 deliverability guide. https://warmy.io
- Happenstance — Plain‑language network search. https://happenstance.ai
- AiSDR — LinkedIn + HubSpot meeting‑booking agent. https://aisdr.com
- Reachy — Outreach agent that respects LinkedIn limits. https://reachy.ai
- Keak — Generates and A/B‑tests landing pages. https://keak.com
Other AI tools
- Payman — Agents hire humans and pay securely. https://paymanai.com
- Pinokio — One‑click local install/serve any AI app. https://pinokio.computer
- Cursor — Code editor with AI chat and refactors. https://cursor.com
- Replit Agent — Prompt‑to‑deployed app in Replit. https://blog.replit.com/category/ai
- Browser‑Use — Headless Chrome action library for agents. https://github.com/browser-use
- Databutton MCP — Drag‑and‑drop GPT/Claude workflows. https://databutton.com/mcp
- Documenso — Open‑source DocuSign replacement. https://documenso.com
- Terra Security — Agentic penetration testing. https://terrasecurity.ai
- Agent Simulate — Synthetic‑user load tests for UX. https://agentsimulate.com
Education AI tools
- Claude for Education — 500 k‑token tutor, worksheet generator. https://claude.ai/edu
- OpenAI Academy — Ten micro‑courses on prompting and safety. https://academy.openai.com
- AI Tutor by Roadmap.sh — Quiz‑chat along dev roadmaps. https://roadmap.sh/ai-tutor
- NotebookLM Audio Overviews — Docs‑to‑multilingual podcasts. https://blog.google/technology/ai/notebooklm-audio-overviews/
- TurboLearn — Notes, flashcards, quizzes from any media. https://turbolearn.ai
- Nvidia free AI courses — Eight hands‑on modules: RAG, vision, more. https://rpafeed.com/free-nvidia-ai-courses-to-master-ai/
- Globe Explorer — AI‑powered visual knowledge maps. https://explorer.globe.engineer
- ClassCentral — 17 k AI courses indexed. https://classcentral.com/subject/ai
- University of Illinois AI — MBA‑level online AI track. https://www.coursera.org/uiuc-ai
- Microsoft Generative AI for Beginners — 12‑lesson open curriculum. https://microsoft.github.io/generative-ai-for-beginners
- Maven AI Bootcamps — Cohort courses on product, prototyping, safety. https://maven.com/collections/ai
Worth checking out
- Devin 2.0 — Autonomous dev writes and ships PRs. https://cognition-labs.com
- Convergence Parallel Agents — Swarm framework splits/merges tasks. https://convergence.ai
- Mistral OCR API — Fast multilingual document OCR. https://mistral.ai/ocr
- NotebookLM “Discover Sources” — Prompt‑based curated reading lists. https://notebooklm.google.com
- Keytake — PDFs → branded explainer videos. https://keytake.ai
Think pieces & resources
- Google “Prompt‑Engineering Best Practices” — 69‑page free guide. https://ai.google.dev/prompts-whitepaper
- State of AI 2025: 12 Graphs — Concise trend deck. https://stateofai2025.com
- 264‑page Agents Survey — Deep dive on GUI/autonomous agents. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.12345
- WEF Future of Jobs 2025 — Skills and wage‑shift data. https://weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025
- Hugging Face SmolAgents mini‑course — Build code‑writing agents. https://huggingface.co/learn/smolagents
- 601 AI Income Ideas — HubSpot monetisation guide. https://offers.hubspot.com/ai-income-ideas
- IBM “Building AI‑Powered Chatbots” — No‑code, vendor‑neutral course. https://cognitiveclass.ai/courses/building-chatbots
- Elements of AI (Stanford/Harvard) — Free fundamentals on ML, ethics, DL. https://www.elementsofai.com
John Luba
Author & Content Creator
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