THE IDEA
Here’s what you need to know.
Not every AI tool is built for studying. These five are. Each does one thing really well, from deep research to turning your own PDFs into notes. Here is what to reach for, and when.
The 5 tools
Claude
Reasoning, long reads, and structured writing. Best for deep research, summarizing big texts, and clear explanations.
NotebookLM
Works straight from your own documents. Best for turning PDFs and transcripts into study notes.
GPTZero
Checks whether text was likely written by AI. Best for academic integrity checks.
Perplexity
Search with live citations. Best for fact-checking and finding sourced answers fast.
Midjourney
Image generation from a text prompt. Best for visuals, concepts, and graphics.
A FEW THINGS THAT HELP
Get more out of it.
- Pair Claude with NotebookLM: research in one, organize your sources in the other.
- Use Perplexity when you need a source you can actually cite, not just an answer.