Just a few years ago, AI was the stuff of science fiction for most of us. Now, it’s an indispensable tool for many bloggers. While AIs like ChatGPT and Midjourney have dominated the headlines, there are a host of other AI tools out there that can help with many different aspects of the content creation process. AIs can assist with many different tasks, including brainstorming ideas, conducting research, polishing prose, or creating graphics. This allows bloggers to spend less time on the parts of the creative process they find tedious and focus on parts they actually enjoy. In this post, we’ll look at some of the best AI tools available to bloggers in 2024. 

Microsoft Copilot: the multimodal assistant

Microsoft’s Copilot is a lot like a Swiss Army Knife. Whether you want an image of a cat building a tokamak, a first draft of an email about mentorship opportunities, or important information about stegosauruses, Copilot can help. Having different capabilities rolled into a single tool makes it an attractive option for people who are just getting started with AI, as does the fact that it uses a conversational interface. Plus, the fact that Copilot is included with the latest version of Windows 11 makes it quite accessible. Unlike many other AI tools, the basic version of Copilot is free, though there is also a paid option that includes added perks like higher-quality images and the ability to use Copilot in Microsoft programs such as Word, Excel, and OneNote. 

When presented with questions, it usually does a good job, though it can flub details. When asked how Church of England bishops are appointed, for example, it got several important details wrong even though its overall answer was accurate. It can even handle in-depth questions about fictional worlds. When asked which Daedric princes subscribed to the Coldharbour Compact (an event from the lore of the Elder Scrolls games), it correctly identified all eight of them. One nice thing about Copilot is that it does provide links to the sources it uses when generating answers. 

Gemini: another general purpose AI

Gemini is Google’s AI tool. Its answer about the appointment of Church of England bishops was slightly more accurate than those of Copilot and Claude, and it included details that the others glossed over. It was also good about providing additional context. But when asked about the Coldharbour Compact, it was unable to answer. It didn’t even connect it to the Elder Scrolls like Claude did. However, it’s much better than Claude at generating basic text such as emails. 

Sudowrite: a tool for creative writers

Sudowrite touts itself as the “AI writing partner you always wanted.” Its target audience is creative writers, and it aims to offer a wide range of assistance. Looking for a synonym for ‘kill’? Highlight the word and Sudowrite will suggest options. Need help describing a crumbling ruin? Sudowrite can provide you with descriptions involving all five senses. It can even rewrite existing text or compose entirely new text in an approximation of your style. You do have to pay for Sudowrite, but they offer different price points based on how much you expect to use it. They also offer a generous free trial. Even though it’s intended for creative writers, anyone who needs to craft evocative prose could find it useful.

Claude.ai: an assistant for technical tasks

Claude.ai is an AI tool that’s supposed to emphasize safety and reliability. While it does a decent job with basic generative tasks such as drafting an email containing an offer of mentorship, it can struggle with tasks that require specialized background knowledge. When asked about the appointment of Church of England bishops, its answer was less accurate than Copilot’s. It was also completely unable to answer the question about the Coldharbour Compact, though Claude did associate it with the Elder Scrolls. 

The developers of Claude tout its ability to translate, and this is one area where it actually does quite well. Historically, Latin has been tricky for machine translators, but when Claude was asked to translate a basic Latin inscription (Publius Pomponius Numeri filius Angitiae donum dedit libens merito), it came up with a decent translation (“Publius Pomponius, son of Numerius, gladly and deservedly gave a gift to Angitia”). In addition, it broke the sentence down into its constituent parts to provide a more granular translation, and it correctly identified the goddess Angitia as the recipient of the gift. Although Copilot structured its response in a similar fashion, its translation was far more stilted, and it struggled with the meaning of ‘Angitiae.’ 

This, coupled with the fact the developers also claim that Claude is good at code generation and advanced reasoning, suggests that this particular AI tool might be best suited for niche applications. But if you’re after for answers or want help drafting a basic document, you might be better off with another tool. 

The AI landscape is vast

Like it or not, AI is here to stay. It’s just the latest in a long line of disruptive technologies that have shaped the creative process. And while ChatGPT and Midjourney have received a lot of coverage, there is a dizzying array of tools that can do everything from summarizing meetings to writing entire books’ worth of text. But it’s important that bloggers use AI properly. It’s neither omniscient nor omnipotent, and it shouldn’t be trusted blindly. It’s also vital that bloggers use AI in an ethical manner, which includes being up front about the ways in which they’re using it. Of course, some bloggers will use it deceptively, which is why it’s important to learn how to spot things like AI-generated images. But, when used properly, AI tools like the ones we’ve talked about in this piece can be a boon for bloggers. They can free up bloggers’ time and energy, allowing them to skip the digital drudgery and concentrate on the elements of the creative process that they enjoy the most.

AI can do more than just create content: 

• Summarize can summarize YouTube videos. 
• VisualPing enables you to see how many times a website has been updated.
• Fintool scrapes the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) system.  
• Frase can help with SEO.
• Summarizer can, well, summarize text.

For even more AI tools, check out the Journalist's Toolbox. It offers a plethora of useful tools, including text generators, video creators, and productivity hacks.