Le and I were in Canisy, a small village in Normandy, when we had a flat tire. By chance, we stopped in front of a garage. The mechanic did not speak English, and I do not speak French. I opened Gemini on my phone, switched to voice mode, and asked it to translate from English to French and from French to English.
I spoke in English, Gemini translated into French, the mechanic replied in French, and Gemini translated his answer back to me. It worked better than I expected.
The mechanic was very nice, and he was as surprised as I was. For me, that was a practical use of AI. We needed to understand each other, and the phone helped us do that in real time.
I use several AI models, but I do not use all of them for the same things.
Over time, I have learned which one I prefer for each task. Sometimes the choice is about the results, sometimes it is about a feature, and sometimes it comes down to cost or whether I can use it where I am.
Gemini for a conversation in French
Gemini is my choice for live translation on the phone. I tried Claude and OpenAI and did not like the results. I need it to be quick enough to follow a conversation, and I need to be able to speak rather than type everything.
The conversation with the mechanic worked because we took turns. I spoke, waited for the translation, then listened while he replied. Keeping that order mattered.
I cannot judge every word of the French translation, because I do not speak French. What I can say is that we managed to communicate, and for that conversation, it was enough. That is why I continue to use it for this kind of task.
Muse for research that involves a browser
We are researching a new house in Europe, and I have been using Muse to help with the search. I want to keep the details private, but it has been a real help. Le uses it too.
Muse has its own browser. Meta describes it as an agent that can browse websites, fill out forms and work across connected services. That matters to me because some research involves more than asking a question and reading an answer.
I review and authorize anything it sends. Having help with the work does not mean I want to stop making the decisions.
For this task, Muse does the job, and I am using it for free at the moment. Those two things make it an easy choice.
Mistral for Le's French research
Le's faith shapes much of her reading, and she wanted to find French Christian authors whose work was in the public domain and who were unfamiliar to her through English-language reading.
She chose Mistral because it is a French AI company, and she wanted to try it for French research. It found several authors she had never heard of. Other AI tools had not recommended those authors to her.
That does not make Mistral the best at everything in French. For this search, it found what the others had missed.
That is a reason to try another tool. You may like the one you usually use, but another one can give you something different.
OpenAI for images and logos
For images and logos, I usually choose between OpenAI and Gemini. Most of the time, I use OpenAI because the images are closer to my taste.
Claude is not my choice for generating images. I use it for other work, and I go elsewhere when I need a picture.
Usage limits also affect this decision. I try to balance image generation between OpenAI and Gemini so I do not use up the allowance on one subscription while leaving the other unused.
Claude for code, writing and bigger projects
Claude is the AI I have used the longest and most often. It is my usual choice for code and writing, and it is where I take my bigger projects.
Familiarity is part of that. I know how I like to work with it, and I have spent more time with it than with the others. But I do not choose it only because I have a subscription. In my experience, it gives me the best results for that work among the models I use.
I can prefer Claude for a big project and still prefer Gemini for a conversation with a mechanic. Those are different jobs.
Why I liked Dots but stopped using it
I tried OpenAI's Dots for a couple of days while my Pro subscription trial was active. I gave it the same kind of house-search research I was doing with Muse, and it did a good job. I liked it very much.
The difficulty was access. During my trial, I needed a VPN set to the US to sign up and use it. When I turned the VPN off, I could no longer use it. That made it less convenient, especially when I wanted to use it on my phone.
With Muse, I was able to continue using it without the VPN after signing up.
As of October 7, 2026, OpenAI's documentation says the Dots rollout for Pro users excludes the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK.
There is also the subscription cost. OpenAI currently lists its lowest Pro tier at $100 per month. For this particular task, I already have useful help from Muse for free. I am not using Dots now because of the access difficulty and the cost, even though I liked the tool. That might change in the future, if the cost goes down and the access gets easier.
How I make the choice
By now, I usually know which AI to open. Gemini for live translation, Muse for the house search, OpenAI for images, and Claude for most of my code and writing. Le found Mistral useful for her own research.
If you are deciding where to start, I would choose one task you actually need help with. Try the tool on that task, look at the result, and see how much correcting or checking it needs. If it does not work well for you, try another.
I would also look at how you will use it. On the phone or at a desk? In a spoken conversation or with a browser? Is it available where you live, and will you use it enough to justify the subscription?
Our choices may change as the tools change. For now, this is what works for Le and me.