Week 1: Foundations

Day 3: Models, Apps, and Providers

Day 3 of 2815 minGoal - Learn - Example - Practice - Checkpoint

Goal

Understand the difference between an AI model, a chatbot app, and the company providing it.

Learn

A model is the engine. A chatbot is the interface. A provider is the company or organization that trains, hosts, or packages the model. ChatGPT is an app from OpenAI. Claude is an app and model family from Anthropic. Gemini is Google's model/app ecosystem. Microsoft Copilot wraps AI into Windows, Edge, GitHub, and Microsoft 365. Meta, Mistral, Perplexity, xAI, Cohere, DeepSeek, and others focus on different mixes of open models, search, enterprise tools, coding, and research.

Behind the scenes

AI tools are products wrapped around models, data, prompts, retrieval, safety systems, and user interfaces. The better you understand the wrapper, the better your results get.

Example

ChatGPT is an app, GPT is a model family, and OpenAI is a provider. The same pattern applies to many AI products.

Practice

Pick three assistants and write what each seems best for: writing, coding, search, images, office work, research, privacy, or speed.

Checkpoint

You can explain why “which AI is best?” depends on the job.

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