The best ai assistants, according to hackers

26 ai assistants recommended in Hacker News comments over the past year, ranked by how many separate people recommend each one.

All ai assistants

ClaudeRecommended for debugging from logs, implementing tricky algorithms and performance tuning, but it makes mistakes on large codebase changes and needs close supervision.5175recommend
Google GeminiRecommended for everyday questions, image and handwriting understanding, and coding or scripting help, but many report confidently invented facts and dislike it being pushed into every Google product.2195recommend
ChatGPTA general-purpose chatbot that people use to research faster, understand health issues, learn topics and draft writing, though it often hallucinates and tells you what you want to hear.2186recommend
GrokRecommended for fast, concise answers, real-time current events through X, and useful second opinions on code, but critics widely cite Musk-driven political bias and weak safety guardrails.727recommend
Microsoft CopilotValued for tight Microsoft 365 integration that finds work documents while respecting access permissions; critics dislike Copilot buttons pushed everywhere, confusing branding and made-up links.139recommend
Claude DesktopPeople recommend it as an approachable home for Claude agents, with connectors, artifacts and parallel sessions; critics call the Electron app slow, buggy and resource-heavy, and dislike its large VM.104recommend
ChatJimmyRecommended as a startling demo of near-instant LLM inference on Taalas's dedicated model chip, though it runs an old small Llama model that gives inaccurate, hallucinated answers.100recommend
ChatGPT DesktopRecommended for a native desktop app that handles chats, Codex coding sessions and computer use in one place. Critics report slowness, hangs and high memory use.63recommend
Microsoft 365 CopilotPeople like it for finding information across documents and email and for helping non-technical staff work in Office. Critics say it often underperforms, feels bloated, and some features cost extra.35recommend
duck.aiGives private, no-signup access to several AI chat models, with privacy as the main draw. Critics doubt its privacy claims and find the smaller models weaker than ChatGPT.27recommend
Le ChatA free AI chatbot from Mistral that people find fast and capable, with generous free use and no signup needed; critics say it trails frontier models and has a messy interface.24recommend
Meta AIFree chatbot praised for clear explanations, fast cheap models and WhatsApp access. Critics cite political bias in image generation and privacy and security lapses.21recommend
RowboatOpen-source, local-first AI assistant keeping your data as plain Markdown on your machine. Critics note it relies on cloud services for speech, analytics and the LLM.15recommend
Proton LumoPeople recommend Lumo for its privacy stance, free tier, and built-in web search that handles everyday questions well. The main caveat is that it trails leading models.14recommend
MIRAOpen-source, self-hosted AI assistant with persistent memory that people can run with their own model; a hosted version is free for now. Critics say it loses track of storylines and ignores commands.14recommend
LocalGPTRecommended as a single-binary Rust AI assistant with persistent memory, lighter than OpenClaw. Main caveat: it still needs a cloud API key, so critics doubt the local-first name.12recommend
Dot by OpenAIPeople recommend it as an always-on assistant that does research, fills web forms and runs computer tasks on request. Critics mention uneven output quality.10recommend
JeminiRecommended as a public tool that makes the Epstein files searchable, with answers linked to source files. Critics warn it may invent claims about named people.10recommend
America.gov chatbotPeople recommend it for useful answers on everyday questions and for pointing to official sources, though critics say it refuses or filters many political and technical questions.10recommend
Atlassian RovoPeople recommend Rovo for quickly summarizing and searching Jira tickets and Confluence pages. Critics mostly warn about security flaws and unreliable, intrusive output.8recommend
LittlebirdPeople recommend Littlebird for reading all on-screen text to pull context from several apps at once, without manual integration. The most common caveat is that sending screen data to the cloud raises privacy concerns.8recommend
Brave LeoFree AI assistant built into Brave, praised for privacy, local endpoint support and research use. Critics say it runs a weak, cheap model.7recommend
MoltisRecommended for being polished, easy to install as a single binary, and fixing OpenClaw's pain points. Main caveat: security risks from the access it is given.7recommend
GaiaOpen-source assistant that people find simple enough for side projects and reliable enough for production, though recommendations are few.5recommend
Lethe (lethe.gg)Recommended as a hosted AI assistant that people say feels like talking to a human rather than a robot.5recommend
Claude for Small BusinessPromising Anthropic AI aimed at small business tasks, though many doubt it adds much. Critics agree that letting AI touch money, payroll or client data is risky.5recommend