Since its inception, AI has become a “must-have” content marketing tool, whether you’re creating content for your target audience on social media platforms or a website. However, it can be prone to errors and requires routine fact-checking in many cases. As Bill Gates put it, "It's like having a helper who's really good at drafting but needs supervision."
Whether you’re writing a blog post from scratch or ensuring accuracy from your AI assistant, doing content research and checking the facts is an increasingly important step in content creation. Before AI, this meant typing your query into search engines or reading Wikipedia to judge your source’s credibility by yourself.
With the introduction of ChatGPT, you can simply ask this popular LLM (large language model) a question and hope for a correct answer. However, it’s been shown that modern LLMs are far from perfectly accurate and consistent.
The solution? Use AI research tools! These platforms use the same conversational style as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, and provide you with citations, rank and organize search results, and generally deliver more reliable results for your content research.
So, what AI tools can help you in your journey to deliver top-quality fact-based content? Let’s find out here.
1. Perplexity.ai
- Strong free and powerful paid version.
- Conversational and familiar ChatGPT-like interface.
- Provides source links to articles and videos.
If your content research is focused on comprehensive answers backed by credible sources, then Perplexity.ai is a great choice. The platform is considered to be the leader in the research AI engine category. Using a familiar conversational interface, Perplexity.ai gives you complete transparency, providing links to diverse sources, like articles, blogs, and videos.
Each sentence or paragraph has individual source links allowing you to check each fact independently and dive deeper if needed. This can be particularly useful when researching a specific topic with limited factual information available. In cases like these, it’s always a good idea to double-check user-generated content from Reddit, YouTube, or Wikipedia to compare.
Perplexity.AI stands out for its strong free offering and powerful paid version, making it a great choice for those needing detailed, source-cited information. Its paid version provides access to a wide variety of useful features, like Pro Search and advanced AI models (GTP-4o, Claude 3, Sonar Large 32k).
2. Liner AI
- Available in Academic and General modes for detailed results.
- Highlights web pages, PDFs, and YouTube videos.
- Streamlines research with folders and note app integrations.
Liner is the closest competitor to Perplexity. It’s available in two modes: Academic and General, allowing the flexibility to fact-check both casual and academic content. Some also consider its UI and presentation of search results to be better than Perplexity, particularly praising the highlighting feature for web pages and PDFs, as well as YouTube integration.
Thorough content research sometimes requires detailed organization. Liner AI addresses this by allowing users to export their findings into OneNote and Evernote or simply store everything directly on the website using folders. Just like Perplexity and YOU AI Search, Liner AI has its own app for both Android and iOS.
3. You AI Search
- Available in Academic and General modes for detailed results.
- Highlights web pages, PDFs, and YouTube videos.
- Streamlines research with folders and note app integrations.
While not primarily a fact-checking platform, You.com AI Search combines a large language model with real-time citations from websites, making it suitable for anyone seeking detailed information for high-quality content.
The key benefits of the research-based queries are the intuitive user interface and availability of multiple AI modes tailored for different query types (e.g., Research, Smart Mode, Genius). As an added bonus, You.com can also generate content, summarize complex topics, and respond to recent news events.
Perplexity.ai vs. Liner AI vs. You AI Search: Quick Comparison
Let’s see how the three LLMs compare to each other in terms of features, affordability, and providing accurate insights during content research:
Search Capabilities
All three offer AI-powered search, but Perplexity stands out for its more advanced capabilities, especially with the Pro subscription, allowing users to choose from the widest range of advanced AI models.
Free Version Limitations
Perplexity offers the most generous free tier with unlimited quick searches and five Pro searches daily. Compared to it, Liner AI and YOU AI Search have more limited free versions.
Pricing
All three LLMs offer free and pro versions with varying prices.
- Liner AI is the most affordable at $9.99/month.
- YOU AI Search is mid-range at $14.99/month.
- Perplexity is the most expensive at $20/month but offers the most comprehensive features.
What Is The Best AI Tool for Content Research and Fact-Checking?
All three AI software deliver impressive performances to help any content marketer, whether you’re doing SEO keyword research, planning a content marketing strategy, or crafting high-quality content.
Liner AI is an up-and-coming content research tool worth a shot. Compared to Perplexity, its search results are arguably better structured and more visually organized. On the other hand, You AI Search offers a highly customizable, user-friendly search experience, providing rich output with a great overall correctness score—even better than Perplexity.
However, Perplexity is more than just a platform for fact-based research, especially in its paid version. It gives access not just to its own but to other AI models, expanding its reach and improving accuracy even more. Currently, it is perhaps the best tool you can find for your research or fact-checking.
Craft Compelling Fact-checked SEO Content With The Influence Agency
Whether you’re searching for relevant keywords or creating valuable content for a blog post or website, fact-checking should be a regular part of your content strategy and development process. AI tools are here to help make an often challenging task easier and so are we. If you want to ensure 100% correct information, our team of experts at The Influence Agency can help you with your fact-checking efforts.
As Toronto’s leading digital marketing company, we provide optimized content that is double and triple-checked for accuracy. We offer content marketing, design, development, keyword research, and more to help you connect with your target audience and grow your business. And we’re always ahead of the curve when it comes to integrating AI tools into our work.
Contact us today to learn how we can help you tailor a content strategy to boost your brand and drive results!