Just Teach Me AI

Meet the tools · 4 min read

What is Claude?

The AI assistant from Anthropic, known for careful answers and long documents. What it is, who makes it, and how it differs from ChatGPT.

Claude is an AI assistant made by Anthropic, an American company founded in 2021 by a group of researchers who had previously worked at OpenAI. It is the second name most people learn after ChatGPT, and among people who write a lot for a living, or who work with long documents, it is often the first choice.

Who makes it, and why that matters

Anthropic was founded specifically around the idea that as AI gets more powerful, making it safe and honest should be the main job, not an afterthought. That focus shows up in how Claude behaves: it tends to be careful, to say when it is unsure, and to decline requests that could cause harm. Some people find this reassuring. Some find it occasionally over-cautious. Both are fair.

The name is generally understood as a nod to Claude Shannon, the mathematician who founded information theory. Anthropic's major investors include Amazon and Google, which is why Claude is also available inside some of their business products.

The Claude models

Like the other companies, Anthropic ships a family of models and updates them regularly. Historically the sizes have been named after forms of poetry: Haiku (small and fast), Sonnet (mid-sized, the everyday workhorse) and Opus (the largest and most capable), with newer generations and names arriving on top. The app usually picks a sensible one for you. As with ChatGPT, you do not need to memorise the version numbers.

What it is like to use

You go to claude.ai or open the Claude app on your phone or computer. As with any chatbot: a text box, you type, it replies.

Things Claude is known for:

  • Long documents. Claude can read very large amounts of text in one go. You can paste in a whole book chapter, a long contract or dozens of pages of notes and ask questions about the whole thing.
  • Writing quality. Many people find Claude's prose more natural and less "AI-sounding" than its rivals. It is good at matching a tone you describe.
  • Projects. You can set up a workspace with background files and instructions, so every conversation inside it already knows the context. Useful for a class, a job search, or a long piece of work.
  • Artifacts. When you ask for something substantial, like a document, a table, a diagram or a small web page, Claude shows it in a side panel you can edit and download, rather than burying it in the chat.
  • Files and images. You can upload PDFs, spreadsheets and photos and ask about them.
  • Web search for current information.
  • Claude Code. A separate tool for programmers that lets Claude work directly in their software projects. Not something a beginner needs, but you will hear the name.

What it costs

There is a free tier that gives you access to a capable model with daily limits. It is enough to learn on.

The paid plan is called Claude Pro (around $20 a month), with higher tiers (Max) for heavy users. Paid plans unlock the strongest models, much higher limits, and the full set of features. Same advice as everywhere on this site: start free, upgrade only if you keep hitting the wall.

Strengths

  • Careful and honest. Claude is comparatively willing to say "I'm not sure" or "I could be wrong about this," which is exactly what you want from an assistant.
  • Excellent with long text. Summarising, analysing, comparing and rewriting large documents is where it shines.
  • Clean, calm interface. Fewer buttons and modes than ChatGPT. Easier for a beginner to find their way around.
  • Good at following detailed instructions. If you give it a style guide or a list of rules, it tends to stick to them.

Weaknesses

  • Still makes things up. Less often, in many people's experience, but never zero. Check facts and citations.
  • Sometimes over-cautious. It may hedge or decline on topics that are perfectly reasonable, and you will occasionally need to rephrase.
  • Fewer bells and whistles. Image generation and some of the flashier features arrived later or not at all compared with ChatGPT. If you want to make pictures, look elsewhere.

Is it the one you should use?

If your main use is reading, writing, summarising and thinking through problems, Claude is an excellent first choice, and arguably the best one. If you want voice conversations, image generation and a very broad set of features, ChatGPT is more complete. If you live in Google's world, Gemini is more convenient. As ever, the practical answer is to try two of them and see which one you reach for.

Try this

Open Claude and paste in the longest email or document you have lying around. Then type:

"Summarise this in five bullet points, tell me if anything in it looks like a problem, and suggest one question I should ask the sender."

That is the kind of task Claude was built for.

Next: Gemini, the AI that lives inside Google.