Tools & models catalog
AI tools & models index
Chat models (including major Chinese labs), local runners, open weights, and AI builders. Pick an entry, read a short page, open the official site.
- Entries
- 55
- Categories
- 6
- Covers
- Local · Remote
- Audience
- Students + learners
Pick a path
Three ramps into the catalog—then browse by category below.
- 01 · I’m new
Learn the language first
Short orientation, then try a browser chat.
- 02 · I want local
Run models on your laptop
Privacy-friendly practice without a cloud bill.
Open Ollama →Then try Olmo (Ai2) · Llama
- 03 · I build apps
Ship with AI in the loop
Editors and generators for real project work.
Chat & API models
Frontier and regional LLMs used in class, internships, and side projects—US labs plus major Chinese model families students keep seeing online.
18 entries · for students comparing options in this category
Aleph Alpha
German sovereign-AI lab aimed at regulated enterprise use.
Anthropic Claude
Long-context workhorse with a careful vibe.
Black Forest Labs (FLUX)
German lab behind FLUX—top-tier open/API image models.
Cohere
Enterprise LLM + RAG tooling—Command models and embeddings.
DeepSeek
Chinese lab punching above its weight on reasoning + code.
Fireworks AI
Fast inference cloud for open and proprietary models.
GLM (Zhipu)
Zhipu’s GLM line—another major China model stack.
Google Gemini
Google’s multimodal stack—text, images, and Google-shaped tooling.
Groq
API inference built for speed—great for demos and tight loops.
Kimi (Moonshot)
Moonshot’s Kimi—long-context chat from China.
MiniMax
Chinese lab in the multimodal / agent-capable model race.
OpenAI (GPT)
The default most tutorials still assume.
OpenRouter
One API key → many models. Perfect for side-by-side evals.
Qwen (Alibaba)
Alibaba’s Qwen family—chat, code, and open weights.
Replicate
Run community models via API without babysitting GPUs.
Together AI
Inference cloud for open models—common in builder tutorials.
xAI Grok
Grok—xAI’s chatty model with a public personality.
Yi (01.AI)
01.AI’s Yi family—another China open/API model line to know by name.
Browser chat
No-install chat products—fastest way for students to practice prompting before wiring an API.
11 entries · for students comparing options in this category
Ai2 Asta
Scientific research agent from Seattle’s Allen Institute for AI.
Ai2 Playground
Try Ai2 open models in the browser before you download weights.
ChatGPT
The on-ramp most people mean when they say “ChatGPT.”
Claude.ai
Anthropic’s chat UI—drop in docs and ask better questions.
DeepL
EU translation tool students actually use for languages + papers.
Google AI Studio
Prompt playground for Gemini—free-form experiments before Vertex.
le Chat (Mistral)
Mistral’s browser chat—EU frontier without wiring an API first.
Midjourney
Image generation most people still mean when they say ‘AI art.’
NotebookLM
Upload your sources—ask questions grounded in *your* docs.
Perplexity
Search-shaped answers with citations you still verify.
Semantic Scholar
Ai2’s academic search—papers, citations, and related work.
Run locally
Run models on a laptop—useful when you want privacy, offline practice, or to understand how inference actually works.
03 entries · for students comparing options in this category
LM Studio
Local models with a friendly GUI—less terminal fear.
Ollama
The easy button for running models on your laptop.
Open WebUI
ChatGPT-like browser UI for your local Ollama models.
Open weights
Downloadable model families often run through Ollama or LM Studio—common in CS coursework and open-source tutorials.
11 entries · for students comparing options in this category
Ai2 Embodied AI
Ai2 research on robots, 3D reasoning, and simulation.
Allen Institute for AI (Ai2)
Seattle’s open-AI institute—models, science agents, and planetary tools.
AstaBench (Ai2)
Open benchmarks for scientific AI agents—measure before you trust.
Hugging Face
The town square for models, datasets, and demos.
Llama (Meta)
Meta’s open-weight family—the one everyone fine-tunes in blog posts.
Mistral
European lab famous for strong small/open models.
Molmo (Ai2)
Ai2’s open multimodal models—image, video, pointing, and more.
Olmo (Ai2)
Ai2’s fully open LLM family—weights, data, and the whole model flow.
OLMoE (Ai2)
Ai2’s open mixture-of-experts LM—MoE without the closed-lab mystery.
Stability AI
Stable Diffusion lineage—open creative models many tutorials still assume.
Tülu 3 (Ai2)
Ai2’s open post-training recipe—instruction-following done in the open.
Build with AI
AI editors and app generators—Cursor, v0, Lovable, and peers—for shipping UI and code faster while you learn.
08 entries · for students comparing options in this category
Aider
Open-source AI pair programmer in the terminal.
Bolt.new
Browser IDE that scaffolds full apps from a prompt.
Claude Code
Anthropic’s agentic coding CLI—terminal-native AI engineering.
Cursor
The AI-native code editor a lot of builders actually live in.
GitHub Copilot
Autocomplete-on-steroids inside the editor many CS majors already use.
Lovable
Describe an app—get a full-stack starting point fast.
v0 (Vercel)
Prompt → UI. Ridiculously good for frontend drafts.
Windsurf
Another AI IDE lane—cascade-style agents in the editor.
Applied & domain
Specialized AI for a real domain—Earth observation, conservation ops, climate—not general-purpose chat.
04 entries · for students comparing options in this category
Ai2 Climate Modeling
Open AI climate emulators—faster planetary simulations for science.
EarthRanger (Ai2)
Conservation ops platform—wildlife, rangers, and protected areas.
OlmoEarth (Ai2)
Ai2 foundation models + platform for Earth observation.
Skylight (Ai2)
Ocean intelligence to help detect illegal fishing.
FAQ
Using this index.
How should I pick a first AI tool?
Use the three paths on this page: Learn + browser chat if you are new; Ollama or a small open model if you want local; Cursor, v0, or Bolt if you are shipping code or UI. Studying from PDFs? Try NotebookLM. Need citations? Try Perplexity. Then browse by category.
What does Local vs Remote mean here?
Local means you run models on your own machine (privacy, offline practice, learning how inference works). Remote means hosted chat or APIs in the cloud. Many students use both—chat for speed, local for experiments. Open WebUI can sit on top of Ollama for a browser-style local chat.
Why include China, EU, and Ai2 tools?
Students see more than US chat brands online. This index maps major Chinese model labs, European options like Mistral, and Seattle’s Allen Institute for AI (Olmo, Asta, and applied planet tools) so names in news and papers are recognizable—especially useful for Northwest Washington learners.
Are these affiliate links?
No. Tool pages point to official websites, downloads, and docs. The goal is a clean field guide—not ads disguised as reviews.
Need vocabulary first? Open Learn · Comparing two tools? Open Comparisons