25 Top Generative AI Tools

Generative AI tools — which rely on a form of artificial intelligence that makes original text, images, videos, audio and code — has transformed daily life, enhancing both creativity and productivity.

Looking ahead, generative AI tools are expected to become as essential as smartphones, the cloud and the internet itself, promising both exciting opportunities and some serious risks.

What Are Generative AI Tools?

Generative AI tools are software programs designed to create new content using advanced AI models. Typically built on neural networks, these models can identify structures and patterns within massive amounts of annotated data. Then, given a prompt or input, the AI is able to draw upon what it has learned to generate relevant, original works — often in real time. Common types of generative AI tools include:

• Text generators: Produce written copy that is both fluent and intelligible.
• Image generators: Create visuals based on text-based user prompts, ranging from photorealistic portraits to surreal landscapes. 
• Code generators: Automatically write their own code, as well as fix bugs in existing code and translate between programming languages. 
• Audio generators: Compose original music in a variety of styles, as well as voices. 
• Video generators: Produce unique video clips from scratch when a user inputs a text prompt.

Below are some of the most popular generative AI tools available today. Some specialize in a single type of content, and others can handle multiple mediums at once. Either way, these tools are shaking up a variety of industries, from the creative arts to software development.

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AI Text Generators

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is designed to understand and generate human-like text based on the input it receives, meaning it is capable of answering questions, providing explanations, writing poems and completing lots of other text-based tasks. It can also understand and produce images, video and audio. ChatGPT’s versatility and conversational abilities make the chatbot a valuable tool across all sorts of industries, from customer service to creative writing. 

Claude

Claude generates natural written responses to both text and image-based user inputs. With broad context and reasoning capabilities, Claude can edit large documents, carry on lengthy conversations and create a variety of original content. It is also trained using a method called “constitutional AI,” where ethical principles guide its behavior. This approach aims to reduce biases and inaccuracies in Claude’s responses, setting it apart from other chatbots, according to its maker, Anthropic.

Gemini

Gemini is a generative AI tool developed by Google. Powered by a family of multimodal models in various sizes, Gemini can handle a wide range of tasks. It can engage in text-based conversations, transcribe audio, create artwork, analyze videos and much more. Gemini models are being incorporated into several other Google products, including Gmail, Docs and its search engine.

Jasper

While it positions itself as an all-in-one marketing app, Jasper is a popular text generator, offering a suite of tools to help users write, optimize and rank their content. The tool can generate content in a variety of brand voices and lengths, whether its social media post, a long-form article or a press release. Jasper also comes with a chat feature, a language translation tool (trained on more than 30 languages) and an art generator, which produces royalty-free images that can be used in ads, blogs and social media posts.

Copy.ai 

Copy.ai is a text generator designed for sales and marketing teams. Built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-4 LLM, it can produce all kinds of content, including articles, blogs, social media posts and product descriptions — all of which can be written in a customized brand voice, ensuring each piece is consistent with a company’s identity and personality. The platform also provides an infobase, where users can teach Copy.ai the ins and outs of their products and services so that it gets the details correct in its outputs.

AI Image Generators

DALL-E 3

DALL-E 3 is a text-to-image generator developed by OpenAI. The tool is built natively on ChatGPT, enabling users to more easily produce and tweak their creations using natural language prompts. Once an image has been generated, users can quickly edit them by either conversing with ChatGPT or interacting with the image directly. To avoid producing deceptive, derivative or otherwise harmful content, DALL-E 3 will not generate images of public figures by name and will not copy the style of another living artist’s work, according to OpenAI.

Imagen 2 

Imagen 2 is an image generator developed by Google’s DeepMind that creates photorealistic artwork from user prompts. Available on Gemini and Google Search, it produces unique images, in addition to providing text responses related to image inputs. The tool can also render text, emblems and logos in multiple languages, overlaying them on existing or generated images. Plus, Imagen 2 features “text-to-live” capabilities, allowing users to create 4-second videos using text prompts.

Midjourney

Midjourney generates images based on natural language prompts. The tool is accessible either through its website or a Discord bot, which can be prompted to create an image using the “/imagine” command. Since its launch in 2022, Midjourney has become a popular (yet controversial) tool for publications, authors, journalists and other creatives. It even became the first platform of its kind to produce an image that won an actual art competition, sparking both wonder and wide-spread debate.

Stable Diffusion 3

Stable Diffusion 3 is an image-generating tool created by Stability AI. Powered by a series of differently sized AI models, it has both text-to-image and image-to-image capabilities — enabling users to both generate new images using written prompts and add or remove elements from existing images. The tool is designed to understand complex prompts involving details like spatial relationships, compositional elements, actions and styles.

Generative AI by Getty Images

Generative AI by Getty Images was trained on the website’s stock images, enabling users to create fully licensed images with comprehensive usage rights. Users enter a text prompt to generate four unique images, which can be customized by adjusting color, mood, lens type, and more. These images can be downloaded and licensed, with each including legal indemnification of up to $50,000. Getty ensures that its AI-generated images do not feature recognizable characters, logos or other intellectual property, and users' creations are not available for others to license without permission.

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AI Code Generators

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is a code-completion tool created by GitHub and OpenAI. Designed for both individual developers and businesses, it generates new code from natural language prompts. For example, if a user writes “design a landing page for a website,” the tool will produce the appropriate code. It is also equipped with a chatbot powered by the GPT-4 language model, allowing users to converse with Copilot in real-time and ask questions about their code.

Tabnine

Tabnine offers code completion services in more than two dozen languages and IDEs. Not only can it generate code, but it can also convert natural language into code (and vice versa), test code and fix bugs. The tool can also learn from users’ individual coding patterns and styles, enabling more accurate and personalized suggestions over time. Available both online via the cloud and offline with a local AI mode, Tabnine was trained exclusively on open source code, ensuring that the code it generates is not copyrighted and can be freely used by other developers.

Watsonx Code Assistant

IBM’s watsonx Code Assistant provides AI-generated code recommendations from both natural language inputs and existing source code. Tailored for enterprise clients, the tool consists of two products: watsonx Code Assistant for Red Hat Ansible Light Speed, which assists in managing and automating IT infrastructure using plain language inputs; and watsonx Code Assistant for Z, which helps modernize outdated applications with improved code. Both are powered by the company’s Granit model, an LLM specifically designed for coding.

Code Llama

Code Llama is an open-source code generation tool that also provides plain language code explanations and error corrections — and all in popular languages like Java, Bash and C++. Built on top of Meta’s Llama 2 LLM, Code Llama has different versions depending on the job, ranging from general-purpose to Python-specific tasks. It also comes in four different sizes, offering users flexibility in performance and speed.

Figstack

Trained on billions of lines of code, Figstack can read and write code in multiple programming languages, and can explain code in plain language. It also has features to help users translate their code from one language to another, write clearer documentation for their functions and optimize their code efficiency. The tool is designed for anyone who programs, including developers, students and entrepreneurs.

AI Audio Generators

Suno

Suno is a music-creation program that can generate realistic instrumentals and vocals from a single text prompt. Users can play around with their prompts to craft a song about a particular topic or genre — an emotional synthpop song about rainy mornings, for example, or a rockabilly song about being in love. While Suno has not publicly disclosed the specifics of the data used to train the tool, the company claims it has developed safeguards against plagiarism and other copyright violations.

Udio

Developed by former Google DeepMind researchers, Udio produces both vocals and instrumentals. Its musical creations are based off user text inputs, which can include genre, story direction and similar artists from which to draw inspiration. Once it has been prompted, Udio generates two 30-second songs to choose from, which can be extended and edited with more prompting.

Soundraw

Soundraw generates royalty-free instrumentals and beats. The platform caters to a wide range of creators, from vocalists seeking backing tracks to marketers in need of mood-setting music for their social media posts. All users have to do is choose their preferred genre, mood, tempo and song length (up to 5 minutes). Once the song has been generated, users can then customize the music, users can then freely distribute and monetize their creations on platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram without any copyright concerns.

ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs takes a comprehensive approach to AI voice generation, offering a suite of text-to-speech, speech-to-speech, dubbing, sound effect and voice-cloning tools. The platform hosts a library of realistic, human-sounding voices across dozens of styles, languages and accents, allowing users to tailor their creations according to their project — whether it’s a dramatic audiobook narration or an intro to a business podcast. After selecting a voice, users can fine-tune its pace, pitch and even subtle, emotional inflections so it matches their intended tone and message.

Speechify

Available as a mobile and desktop app and Chrome extension, Speechify is an AI voice generator that reads text out loud using optical character recognition. This includes anything from news articles and web pages to Google Docs and emails, all of which can be translated into more than 60 languages. The platform offers a selection of more than 200 AI-generated voices, some of which resemble celebrities. Users can also clone their own voice.

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AI Video Generators

Synthesia

Synthesia creates AI-generated videos, complete with voice overs and realistic-looking avatars that represent various demographics and moods. Users upload their script, choose their avatar and customize their video’s layout. From there, the platform uses natural language processing and deep learning techniques to generate footage that shows the avatar reading the script, along with additional voice overs and supplemental text. Users can choose from more than 200 stock avatars or create their own. 

Elai.io

Elai.io converts text prompts to AI-generated videos, all it needs is a link to a blog post or a PDF of a presentation. Supporting more than 75 languages, it lets users choose from dozens of stock avatars or create custom ones to present their videos. After the video is created, users can make edits before downloading it. Elai.io is primarily designed to create corporate training videos, according to the company.

Colossyan

Colossyan helps companies create training, marketing and corporate communication videos without any equipment or human actors, generating human-like AI avatars that deliver material with realistic lip syncing. The platform offers hundreds of diverse avatars, voices and customizable backdrops, and even enables scenarios where multiple avatars can interact with each other. It can automatically translate into more than 70 languages, and includes features like conversation modes and multiple-choice quizzes for assessing viewer engagement.

Runway

Runway creates AI-generated images, animations and 3D models, using relative motion analysis to generate realistic motion graphics. Its underlying model — trained on both images and videos — powers both its text-to-video and image-to-video capabilities, offering precise control over style, structure and camera movement. Used in movies like Everything Everywhere All At Once, as well as music videos for artists like A$AP Rocky and Kanye West, Runway is designed for professionals in filmmaking, post-production, advertising, editing and visual effects.

Dream Machine

Dream Machine makes high-quality, realistic videos from both text and image inputs. Created by Luma AI, the tool was built on a scalable, multimodal transformer architecture. It can generate clips up to 5 seconds long, complete with realistic physics, smooth cinematography and even drama. However, Luma says the tool still struggles with things like spelling and movement.

Frequently Asked Questions