AI tools
Free assistants suitable for coursework
You need three working surfaces for this course: a browser chat, GitHub Copilot in VS Code, and a command-line agent. Week 02 has you install and compare both course CLI agents before choosing the combination that fits your work.
This page is a wider survey of what is available and free. The landscape changes quickly, so confirm current free-tier terms before relying on any of them.
| Client Name | Type | Key Features | Free tier details | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Web UI | General-purpose conversational AI for a wide range of tasks | Free access to a highly capable model, with some usage limits | General Q&A, content creation, and exploring creative ideas |
| Claude | Web UI | Strong capabilities in creative writing, summarization, and analysis | Free tier with daily message limits | Sophisticated writing tasks and in-depth document analysis |
| Gemini on the web | Web UI | User-friendly interface for direct chat, content generation, and analysis | Free access to a powerful model, with some limits on usage | Everyday tasks, brainstorming, writing assistance, and learning LLM capabilities |
| GitHub Copilot | IDE Extension | AI-powered code completion, suggestions, and chat within your editor | Free for verified students, teachers, and maintainers of popular open-source projects | Seamlessly integrating AI assistance into the software development workflow |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | Command-line | Repository-aware coding agent in the terminal | Available with GitHub Copilot plans | Testing, editing, and explaining code without leaving the terminal |
| Antigravity CLI | Command-line | Google’s repository-aware coding agent, launched with agy |
Free access available | Comparing agent approaches and working from repository context |
| LM Studio | Desktop app | Run open-source LLMs locally, offline capability | Completely free software; uses your computer’s resources | Running models offline and experimenting with privacy |
| Ollama | CLI / local server | Easily run and manage open-source LLMs locally, provides an API | Completely free software; uses your computer’s resources | Developers building applications on top of local LLMs |
| Hugging Face chat | Web UI | Access and chat with a wide variety of open-source models | Completely free to use | Quickly trying out and comparing open-source models |
| Poe by Quora | Web & mobile app | Access a mix of popular models (Claude, Gemini, etc.) in one app | Free daily message limits for most models | Comparing different flagship models, especially on mobile |
| Google AI Studio | Web UI | Prototype prompts for the Gemini API, generate code | Free tier with rate limits, same as the Gemini API | Students learning to build with the Gemini API |
What the course requires
Everything in the table is optional except the tools named in the setup guide: a browser chat of your choice, GitHub Copilot in VS Code, and both GitHub Copilot CLI and Antigravity CLI, which you install and compare in Week 02.
GitHub Copilot is free for verified students through GitHub Education.