All You Need To Know About Le Chat - The "Free ChatGPT" To Work More Efficiently (+10 Most Popular Custom GPTs)

(Honest) review on le Chat, ChatGPT’s Agent “Operator”, custom GPTs to boost productivity, Microsoft will let you clone your voice in meetings, and more.

Welcome to Stay Ahead #51 from FlexOS!

Every Wednesday, we share the latest tools and tips to help you work smarter, not harder.

In this week’s edition:

1. News of the Week: The latest AI updates that will directly impact your work.
2. Productivity Tools: Apps and tools to boost your productivity.
3. Must-read News: Microsoft Team will soon let users clone their voice.
4. Job Board: Future-forward remote roles.

Let’s dive in!

Le Chat: The free and capable AI we have been waiting for

Mistral AI just made a huge upgrade on its chatbot - “le Chat,” meaning the cat in French. In a nutshell, le Chat now has almost all (paid) features of ChatGPT, and with the biggest competitive edge - it’s free. 

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Here’s what le Chat can do:

• Web search with citations
• Canvas for brainstorms and in-line edits
• Image generation
• Document and Image Understanding: Powered by the multimodal Pixtral Large model, Le Chat can process and analyze complex PDF documents and images, extracting insights from graphs, tables, diagrams, text, formulas, and equations.
• Le Chat Agents: Users can automate repetitive workflows by creating agents that codify specific tasks, such as receipt scanning for expense reporting or summarizing meeting minutes, streamlining daily operations.

Le Chat highlights the truthful competitive edge themselves compared to other models: It’s free. While this doesn’t necessarily make it better than its counterparts, I’m not complaining at all.

Le Chat is still in beta and training AI models is extremely expensive. We can imagine maintaining this offer at free tier can be challenging for Mistral AI.

There is one major point you would want to notice to optimize your interaction with le Chat. Unlike ChatGPT, the model will not be flexible to search web or open canvas based on your queries, you have to choose the feature before starting the conversation. 

Mistral AI emphasized that rather than chasing AGI, their priority is to put 'frontier AI in your hands.' This approach is a key reason they can offer a free tier packed with a generous range of features.

If you’ve been hesitant to commit to a paid AI service or feel you’re not fully utilizing ChatGPT’s features, Le Chat is a worthy free alternative with substantial potential for future growth!

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AI Agents will be the new norm in 2025

OpenAI is reportedly planning to launch “Operator”, an autonomous AI agent in January 2025. This update is relevant to Microsoft’s Magentic-One last week. Though we do not yet know specifically how it works, we understand that, like other AI agents, it can observe your desktop activity, take over tasks, and independently perform work such as coding or booking a plane ticket for you.

The agent will first be launched as a research preview and for developers. So far, it’s unclear what will make Operator distinctive from Magentic-One, Anthropic’s Computer-use, or Google’s upcoming AI agent. One thing we can be sure of is that after chatbot models, AI agents are the next race key players are investing in. It’s reasonable to say that by 2025, AI agents will become mainstream.

The biggest barriers between AI agents and the public are their technicality and experimental nature. Similar to Magentic-One or the upcoming Operator, these agents will either initially target developers and researchers to implement and use the models locally or face challenges in taking concise, fast, and meaningful actions during their beta phase.

So far, Microsoft Copilot has been ahead of the game in terms of practicality, especially for businesses. Microsoft announced 10 new autonomous agents, such as the Sales Qualification Agent, Supplier Communication Agent, and Customer Intent Agent, in Microsoft Dynamics 365, and will allow users to create autonomous agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio in November.

It’s an exciting time ahead as we experience new milestones in what AI is capable of. I hypothesize that the first player to launch an agent publicly to the mainstream with the lowest technical barrier will achieve the next “ChatGPT moment.”

10 custom GPTs to boost productivity

• Visuals and Videos: Canva GPT, CapCut VideoGPT
• Writing: Write For Me, Copywriter GPT
• Research: Scholar GPT, Consensus GPT
• Programming: Code Copilot, Python GPT‍
• Job seeking: Interview & Resume/CV - Job & Career Coach, Recruiter Pro: Evaluates Job CV/Resume (ATS, HR)

‍→ Read more news at the end.

Best Productivity Tools To Try Out This Week

Fabulous - Build and track healthy habits. 

Tactiq - Get transcription for any YouTube video in one click.

Pictory AI - Video creation with AI voice-over.

Julius - Make a graph instantly.

More cool AI newsletters that I love:

​Morning Brew—Quick and insightful updates about the business world every day of the week from Wall St. to Silicon Valley.

​Innovating with AI—Courses, community, and coaching on AI.

Need more AI Tools? Check out

The best AI tools for Recruiting, Marketing, Accounting, and HR.

​10 Tools Anyone Can Use (Writing, Powerpoints)

​10 AI Productivity Tools (Meeting Notetaking, Writing, Brainstorming.)

Our full AI For Work Top 100

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OpenAI’s tumultuous early years revealed in emails from Musk, Altman, and others

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Microsoft will soon let you clone your voice for Teams meetings​

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