WhichAI? is a free decision helper for journalists who want to use AI well — without wasting hours testing tools or getting locked into the loudest brand. Tell it what you're working on; it returns a short, ranked shortlist of the models and tools genuinely worth using for that exact task, right now.
What it does
The AI tools landscape changes every few weeks. New frontier models drop, prices shift, and tools that were essential last quarter are quietly overtaken. WhichAI? cuts through that noise for a single use case at a time:
Pick the closest task.Drill down through a journalism-specific tree — reporting & investigation, interviews & audio, verification, data, writing, multimedia — to the exact thing you're trying to do.
Add newsroom context.Story, deadline, format, constraints (privacy, sourcing, budget). All optional, but the more you say, the sharper the recommendation.
Get an unbiased Top 3.Real product names, specific model versions, links, honest watch-outs, and a ready-to-paste starter prompt designed to reduce hallucinations.
See realistic cost in Rand.Monthly cost estimates in ZAR for a single journalist — including free tiers — so you can pick something your newsroom can actually afford.
How it works
1You describe the task.The decision tree narrows the universe of AI tools to a specific journalism job (e.g. geolocate a photo, transcribe a noisy multi-speaker recording, fact-check a statistic). Your free-text context is added on top.
2A frontier model runs the analysis.Your task + context is sent to a current frontier large language model via the Lovable AI gateway. The model is briefed as a neutral, vendor-agnostic advisor with up-to-date knowledge of the AI tool landscape.
3It shortlists the Top 3.The model is forced to weigh accuracy and hallucination risk, source confidentiality, attribution transparency, deadline speed, and cost — then return exactly three recommendations, ranked best-first.
4Each recommendation is scored.Every option gets a Quality score (output quality for this exact task, /10), a Value score (cost-effectiveness, /10), and a concrete monthly cost in ZAR. You also get 2–4 strengths, up to 2 honest limitations, and a starter prompt that asks for citations and flags uncertainty.
5A workflow ties it together.Finally, you get a 2–5 step practical newsroom workflow that combines the recommended tools, ending with a human verification step — because the byline is still yours.
How it stays unbiased
No vendor relationships. Social Weaver is not paid by any AI company. Recommendations are not affiliate links.
Free and open tools count. If a free, open-source or smaller tool genuinely wins on quality or value for the task, it's named — even over the biggest brands.
Honest watch-outs. Every recommendation includes the trade-offs: privacy concerns, hallucination patterns, learning curves, regional availability.
You stay in charge. The output is a starting point for a human journalist, not a finished story. Verification is always the final step.
A tool by Social Weaver
WhichAI? is built and maintained by Social Weaver, a South African team that has trained newsrooms, NGOs and communicators across Africa in digital media, storytelling and — increasingly — practical, responsible AI. We made this because the journalists we work with kept asking the same question: which AI should I actually use for this?