“The Download” is your weekly insider’s guide to AI and digital technology that actually works. Get practical insights, hands-on tool reviews, and actionable strategies delivered straight to your inbox. Written by digital strategy consultant Jim Christian, it’s your shortcut to staying ahead in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
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💾 The Download #012: AI web search, OpenAI's Whisper, Qwen AI and more.
Published 6 days ago • 3 min read
The Download #012
February 14th, 2025
Dear Reader,
This week: AI web search, OpenAI's Whisper, Qwen AI and more.
If you're only used to traditional web search and haven't tried AI powered search yet, I suggest you give it a try now.
Once you start getting used to how quickly AI search retrieves information without you having to juggle keywords, it's hard to make the switch back.
Let’s get to it.
AI Tool of the Week: Arc Browser
Arc is a modern web browser developed by The Browser Company that aims to be more than just a traditional browser.
Favourite highlights of mine include:
Selecting a search engine of your choice - while this isn't an uncommon feature in modern browsers, Arc can natively be set to use Perplexity.
Vertical split-pane browsing. Have two sites open at once, sharing the same window, side-by-side.
Based on Chromium, so if you're already Chrome user, you can bring over all your settings and extensions.
Organizes tabs into "spaces" with separate themes and browser profiles
Includes built-in ad blocking through UBlock Origin
Syncing between devices, even for Arc on your phone
Features automatic picture-in-picture for video content, so if you have YouTube open and navigate away to another tab, the mini-player pops right up.
Split-pane browsing is a game-changer, particularly if you work in a browser all day.
Search engine options include Perplexity AI search.
Arc has become my default browser for more than a year now, and I've never thought about switching back to Safari or Chrome. It's free, and definitely worth a look.
That's right, two top picks this week! I've been using MacWhisper for two years now as part of my daily workflow. It's an indie app, that allows you to transcribe audio and video, all safely offline, and also use AI queries to interrogate the transcript. I've used it for:
Generating FAQs from webinar recordings
Creating show notes for podcasts
Generating SRT subtitles files for YouTube videos
Creating action plans from meeting recordings
(Not to be overlooked, I also use it to transcribe the bonkers stories that my kids leave on my phone's voice memos app when I'm not looking.)
The developer, Jordi Bruin, has kept to his word about keeping the app updated and fully featured. There's a lot on offer for the free version, and even more on the Pro version for a one-time payment (no subscriptions!)
Windows users, I haven't forgotten you. I found an alternative app called 'Whisper UI' which looks like it does the same thing, but I haven't fully tested it yet.
What is it?QwenAI is Alibaba Cloud's advanced artificial intelligence model family, with its latest version being Qwen 2.5, designed to compete with major AI models like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. It's also Apple's pick to drive their Apple Intelligence functionality in the Chinese market.
What can it do? In recent benchmarks, Qwen 2.5-Max has achieved top scores when compared against DeepSeek, OpenAI, and Meta Platforms' models, positioning it as a significant player in the AI landscape, particularly for organizations seeking open-source alternatives to proprietary AI solutions. You can search the web with it just like ChatGPT and Perplexity, and even try out some basic text-to-video generation.
For users seeking free, open-source alternatives to ChatGPT, this may be the one to watch.
Writing
Guides: OpenAI's Whisper for Speech-to-Text
OpenAI's Whisper is a cutting-edge speech-to-text AI that accurately transcribes audio in 100+ languages. Learn what it is, how it works, and how to use it in this in-depth beginner's guide. Unlock the power of automatic transcription for your own projects.
Apple has chosen Alibaba's Qwen AI model to power AI features for iPhones in China, marking a significant move in the competitive smartphone market and highlighting the growing importance of AI integration in mobile devices. So what is it?
That's all for this week. For daily AI and tech news, check out The Syntellicast from Monday - Friday. Now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
“The Download” is your weekly insider’s guide to AI and digital technology that actually works. Get practical insights, hands-on tool reviews, and actionable strategies delivered straight to your inbox. Written by digital strategy consultant Jim Christian, it’s your shortcut to staying ahead in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
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