Many educators have tried out ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered tool that can instantly generate a response to seemingly any prompt, and they say it—and other similar tools—have helped them improve their work.

They’ve used generative AI tools to plan lessons, help struggling students with their assignments, streamline feedback on student work, and more.

Artificial intelligence technologies replicate human-like intelligence by training machines and computer systems to do tasks that simulate some of what the human brain can do. It relies on systems that can learn, usually by analyzing vast quantities of data and searching out new patterns and relationships. These systems can improve over time as they take in more information.

Of course, there are potential downsides to the new technology. It can produce inaccurate or biased responses based on faulty data it draws from, and it has the potential to cause huge data privacy problems. Experts have cautioned that when using these tools, it’s important to know how they were trained and what datasets were used. It’s also important to be skeptical about any information these tools provide and to double-check it with a trusted source.

ChatGPT, created by research laboratory OpenAI, is one of the most popular generative AI tools, being the first on the scene. Since its release last year, many more like it have cropped up. Below is are other generative AI tools teachers are using to help them with their work:

Google Bard and Microsoft Bing Chat

Bard and Bing Chat are, respectively, Google’s and Microsoft’s competitors to ChatGPT. Bard and Bing Chat function similarly to ChatGPT: They aim to give human-like answers to questions. They’re free and easy to use. They can write lesson plans and emails and provide feedback on assignments. But there are some differences.

For instance, the free version of ChatGPT was only trained on data available up to 2021, while Bard and Bing Chat can give more up-to-date information. Bing Chat runs on the premium version of ChatGPT, which has been trained on a wider range of information and is more advanced than the free version, while Bard uses a different model. Bing Chat also often cites where it got its answers, while Bard and ChatGPT do not.

Like ChatGPT, these chatbots are prone to making up information or producing biased responses. When using these tools, it’s best to always double-check the facts with other sources.