Catweazle

@Icarus, there are currently more than 1.500 AI services and apps out there. If you are interest in this theme you can take a look here, it's a complete list of all of them, daily updated.

https://www.futuretools.io

@Icarus, special for codes is Phind, a AI search engine for devs

https://www.phind.com

None of the search engines is perfect, all of them have pros and flaws, because of this, if you need a deeper research it is inevitable to have several on hand.

@Lobstronomosity, I think so. I'm in communication with them (Angie Hoover and Jed White) on Discord where they are quite active discussing progress, news, bugs, user feedback and suggestions that they take quite seriously. I think that small startups, as well as the one here at Mastodon present @Mojeek search, who want to offer a good alternative to these big corporations, deserve user support.

@Lobstronomosity, yes, Andisearch isn't (yet) so good for images (it's still in heavy developement), but normally it give very reliable answers, even accept commands and !Bangs (see help), similar to DDG, it has a reader mode and you can play YT videos in the search result. It's from a two person startup, Google and tracking haters. Nice and usercentred people.

@MyNameIsIgglePiggle @yaniv, Gimp isn't so bad, Krita is greatbut mostly dedicated for paintings, not so for photos. Yes Inkskape is a sluggish headache, for vector graphics you can try Libre Office Draw, OpenToonz or Graphite (online), al also OpenSource.
Blender is for 3D modelling and animation, maybe better the improved version (compatible with Blender formats and plugins) Bforartists

@CCatMan @div, easy, show them tis analyse of Reddit, made with bLacklight. (the TowerData which appears is known to use even keylogger to profile the user).
https://themarkup.org/blacklight

@natebluehooves @dl007, to find what I search I use mostly these search engines with AI without BigBrother company spyware, is in these where AI is usefull because "de-hazzle" the internet with direct answers based on reliable resources, ChatGPT can't do this, it has a knowledge base from 2021 and can't give reliable and up-to-date answers because of this.

https://andisearch.com (the most private search engine ever)
https://www.perplexity.ai
https://you.com (free account to use it)

@pyre_fyre, mostly Andisearch, but apart also

@dl007, I've stopped using Google and Bing since almost 10 Years.

@Zerush, Andisearch, Perplexity.ai, You.com are the best and way more reliable than these BigBrother AI.