Chat assistants
General-purpose chat apps where you type, talk or upload files, and an assistant answers, writes, searches and uses tools.
Read first: Post-training: from predictor to assistant.
D1 · StoryFor young children and total beginners
A chat assistant is an app where you talk with an AI in a conversation.
You ask, it answers, and you can ask follow-up questions. Many can also search the web, read your files or make pictures.
Like: A very well-read help desk that never closes.
D2 · PictureFor curious beginners
The chat window is the visible part. On every turn the app sends the whole conversation, plus hidden instructions, to the model, because the model itself keeps no memory between calls.
Modern chat apps are harnesses too: they add web search, file reading, code running, image tools, connectors to your accounts and saved memories about you.
One model can be reached in several ways: the maker's own app, a third-party app that lets you switch models, or a local chat app talking to a model on your own machine.
Like: A very well-read help desk that never closes.
Where it breaks: A help desk worker remembers yesterday's call. The model does not; any memory is notes the app saves and adds to the prompt, which you can usually view and delete.
D5 · FrontierFor experts
Open questions: how memory and connectors should handle private data, assistants telling people what they want to hear, how much people rely on chat answers for health, legal or money decisions, and how an assistant that reads your email resists instructions hidden in that email.
Examples as of 2026-10-13
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini