AI for Everybody - Lesson 2
What Is This Thing? Models, Products, and Chatbots Are Three Different Things
Open the chat tool you have been using. Look for the dropdown that shows which model you are talking to. In ChatGPT it sits above the input box; in Claude it lives in the top bar; in Gemini it is tucked into a menu. Click it.
You will see a list. Two or three names, sometimes more, each one different from the product you opened. The product is called ChatGPT. The thing the dropdown lets you choose between has a name like GPT-5.5, or GPT-5.5 Pro, or GPT-5.5 Instant. The product is called Claude. The dropdown shows Opus 4.7, Sonnet 4.5, Haiku 4.5. The product is called Gemini. The dropdown shows 3.1 Pro and a couple of older versions.
What you are seeing is the moment three things you may have lumped together as “the AI” pull apart into three separate things. The product, the model, and the interface. Telling them apart is the second tool I will hand you for the rest of this course.
