Generative AI has come a long way in the past year, from a handful of AI image generators, ChatGPT, and the first signs of AI video to an ecosystem of creativity.
Every major tech company has fully embraced the world of generative AI, and chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini can do everything from generating computer games to writing impressive poetry.
We’ve seen the emergence of advanced, natural-sounding generative music with voices from companies like Suno and Udio, and AI video is now so real that it’s indistinguishable from reality.
A handful of companies in this space stand out from the crowd, often offering surprisingly impressive features, a robust community system, or advanced capabilities not available elsewhere and these are our favorites.
Best AI Chatbot
Best AI Chatbot: Claude
In just under a year, Claude has gone from being an underdog compared to ChatGPT to one of the most powerful and feature-rich AI productivity platforms on the market.
With Sonnet 3.5, he is capable of advanced reasoning, complex coding, the ability to understand even the most obscure images, and a better understanding of humor.
What sets Claude apart for me as the best AI chatbot of the year is Anthropic’s constant updates and new features, including Artifacts, the best AI feature of the year of any company. This allows you to interact with a game, app, code, or chart generated by Claude without leaving the interface and even share the creation with others.
In addition to Projects and an improved UI, Anthropic has also added a Projects feature that allows you to upload a range of files and artifacts related to a single discussion.
Best AI Image Generator
Best AI Image Generator: Leonardo
AI-powered image generators have proven themselves in 2024, reaching levels of realism that were previously impossible and even developing the ability to accurately render text on an image. There are more AI-powered image generators than any other type of generative content product, and for me, Leonardo stands out as the most feature-rich and unique product in a crowded market.
In addition to stable diffusion-based models for generating complex, photorealistic images, scaling, and even texture generation, Leonardo has its own model in Phoenix. This new generator can follow a prompt unlike anything I’ve tried before. You can be explicit in what you want, even with complex queries, and it will render the result accurately.
Other features include generating videos from any image, real-time generation, and even the ability to create an AI image from a rough sketch rather than a text prompt.
Best AI Video Generator
Best AI Video Generator: Runway
Competition in the AI video generation space has grown rapidly over the past 12 months, from Runway, the only commercial AI synthetic video tool, to an increasingly crowded market that includes Pika Labs, Luma Labs Dream Machine, Haiper, LTX Studio and, at least for filmmakers if not the general public, OpenAI’s Sora.
The reason Runway is my AI video generator of the year, despite a crowded market, is the fact that it has continued to innovate, including a new model capable of an impressive degree of realism in both motion and video quality. Gen-3 is not yet fully operational, available in Alpha and only in text-to-video, but despite this, it is the best publicly available video model on the market.
In addition to its impressive video generation, Runway’s lip sync is one of the most impressive I’ve used. The site comes with asset catalogs and team-based interfaces, and you have a range of other image, 3D, and audio features available as part of the same subscription.
Best AI Music Generator
Best AI Music Generator: Udio
There are a number of AI music generators out there and this can be one of the most controversial categories due to concerns and lawsuits from the music industry. There are generators that only use licensed and tracked music and offer original features, but Udio offers by far the best sound quality, musical realism, and voice generation of any generator currently available to the public.
It was a close call between Udio and Suno, but in the end, the ability to set specific generation points within a song as you expand it, the customization of lyrics and styles, and a growing community won out for me. Udio’s songs also capture a sense of emotion that others struggle with.
Udio is also more controllable than other models. You can use tags to define certain parts of the song as speaking, create cross-genre tracks, and create a song from your own sounds.
Best AI Device
THE Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have been elevated in just a few months from a pair of glasses with a built-in camera and voice assistant, to a fully-fledged AI device that truly brings great benefits to your daily life.
Sure, the $299 asking price might be a bit steep for a pair of glasses, but the Meta tech inside and regular software updates make it well worth it. It all starts with the 12MP camera on the front that captures impressive photo and video content in an Instagram-friendly 9:16 aspect ratio. Alongside that, impressive built-in speakers and microphones make it ideal for taking calls and listening to ambient music on the go.
But the real beauty is in its artificial intelligence, because the intelligent capabilities of this format are enormous. For example, during my stay in Costa Rica, I was able to observe a tourist site and ask for details about it, which the Ray-Ban Meta were happy to do with details.
Or in a restaurant where I was immediately stumped by a long menu in Spanish, I received an audio translation of what was written on the piece of paper. Simply put, this is the best AI hardware you can buy right now.
Best AI Phone Feature
Best AI Feature on Phone: Circle to Search
Imagine Google Lens, but powered by AI and considerably faster and more convenient to use. That’s a basic explanation of Circle to Search on Android. With a few quick gestures, including drawing the eponymous circle, you can ask Google’s AI what you’re looking at. All without having to switch to another app, type text, or take screenshots.
The AI is pretty subtle, and you may not have realized that Circle to Search actually uses AI. But it’s there, identifying objects and sounds, translating text into something you can read, and answering questions you might have about what’s on your screen. The best part is that Circle to Search is so easy to use that you can easily turn it on without even realizing it.
