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Merlin AI 101
Merlin AI is rated 4.0/5 on Google Play Store (based on 1.31K reviews) and 4.4/5 on Apple’s AppStore (based on 336 reviews). Its Chrome extension is also rated 4.8/5 on the Chrome Web Store based on 8.7K reviews. This indicates that most users are generally satisfied with Merlin AI. Reviewers satisfied with Merlin AI most frequently mention the wide range of available features, intuitive user experience, and high performance.
So, what is Merlin AI? There’s no one way to describe it: it’s a combination of two dozen generative AI tools, all wrapped in one package (similar to what we described in this Caktus AI review).
With Merlin AI, you can use multiple AI chatbots, such as GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, Gemini, Claude, and Llama. You also gain access to image and audio AI tools with DALL-E, Leonardo, and Whisper.
Now, what does Merlin AI do? In a word, a lot. With it, you can use any of the chatbots listed above to generate text, ask questions, and brainstorm ideas. You can also summarize blog posts and YouTube videos, generate responses on LinkedIn, and get explanations for code snippets.
Finally, you can use Merlin AI tools to create email responses, chat with websites, and get AI summaries for your search engine queries.
Merlin AI: Our Experience
Let’s state the obvious: Merlin AI wasn’t created for academic writing help, per se. It’s meant to be a toolkit of all AI capabilities you may need – and replace subscriptions to multiple AI models with a single Merlin AI account.
This means that Merlin AI output isn’t inherently different from ChatGPT’s or Claude’s. Merlin AI’s added value doesn’t lie in additional safeguards against hallucinations or features that would facilitate academic writing in particular, either. It does, however, allow chatbots access to the internet, which is an advantage.
To test how suitable Merlin AI may be for academic writing needs, we took it for a test drive. After creating an account, we asked the chatbot to generate essays and tinkered with its many other features. We also looked into Merlin AI’s browser extension and mobile apps.
All in all, while it’s a pretty handy tool, Merlin AI failed to impress us. The thing is, it’s not made to help you with your homework. It’s an all-in-one toolkit designed to pamper a wide variety of audiences. Its generated output, however, is no better than multi-purpose models like ChatGPT – simply because it gives you access to those models.
How Good Is Merlin AI’s Output?
The short answer is, the output is as good as the AI models included in Merlin AI. Once you log into your account and select the chatbot option, you can choose the AI model to work with. If you opt for GPT-3.5 or GPT-4, you’ll essentially be getting ChatGPT’s responses. Try the tool we tested for our EduWriter AI review, and you’ll understand what we mean.
For our review, we tinkered with the GPT-3.5. We asked the model to generate a five-page (1,250-word) essay on the benefits and constraints of socialism. We used the tool’s web version for our trials, and we turned the web access on. GPT-3.5 fared okay. Although, as it usually happens with ChatGPT, the output was far too short: 471 words instead of 1,250.
Although Merlin AI enabled the chatbot to add citations to the text, they were unusable. One citation led to a collection of flashcards on Quizlet (!). Another one led to getmerlin.in/undefined, which showed a 404 error.
All in all, even if the text was informative enough, it was too short, and access to the internet didn’t make a difference. The generated output was a good starter for someone’s essay, but it could hardly be called an essay on its own.
What About Customer Support?
What if you have questions about how to use Merlin AI or experience billing issues? Can you contact Merlin AI’s customer support? The short answer is yes – but the process is a bit complicated.
First, you need to have an account with Merlin AI, even if you’re not planning to pay for a subscription just yet. Then, in the menu on the left, you can browse the customer support options:
- The toolkit’s wiki hosted on Notion, which was quite comprehensive
- Email address (support@getmerlin.in)
- Feedback form (done in Google Forms)
- Live chat with support reps
Since we prefer live chat when it comes to customer support, we decided to test this route. To our surprise, apart from messaging, we could also choose to start a voice call or video call with a representative if we chose so:
On top of that, the live chat supported screen sharing – an extremely helpful feature if you’re experiencing technical issues. As for our overall experience, our conversation with a customer support agent went smoothly. We received a response in about five minutes, and it kept to the point but was detailed enough.
Merlin AI’s User Experience: Worth the Money?
Considering the underwhelming AI “essay” quality, we asked ourselves the very same question that entered our minds after reading The Good AI reviews: why would Merlin AI be so highly rated?
Well, we think it’s due to two reasons. One, most users don’t turn to it for generating essays. Two, the user experience is quite amazing with Merlin AI – we have to give credit where credit is due.
Take the onboarding after installing the extension, for example. Merlin AI guides you through how to access the chatbot and what features the extension offers. Once you try to chat with a webpage for the first time, Merlin AI shows you a tutorial, too. (It has video tutorials for using each of its many features.)
What’s more, you can easily switch between AI models mid-conversation – without losing your progress. For example, you can generate text with ChatGPT and then ask Claude or Mixtral to refine it without any copy-pasting involved.
Merlin AI Extension: Worth the Install?
As Merlin AI offered plenty of AI features for browsing the web, we thought: How could a student leverage those tools? So, we decided to install the Merlin AI Chrome extension and google our topic.
The chatbot window immediately popped up in the bottom right corner with a generated overview of the benefits and constraints of socialism, with links in each point.
Those links, while helpful, weren’t all 100% reliable. One link led to a Quora response, for example. Yes, it’s something you might’ve clicked on anyway, but it’s not a credible source.
As for the webpage summarization feature, it is a powerful one. It took the chatbot around five seconds to condense the webpage’s content to several bullet point lists.
If you’re wondering whether there’s a Merlin AI Firefox extension, there isn’t. Unfortunately, Merlin AI has only a Google extension to offer its users.
Merlin AI’s Many Extra Features
We know that some of you may turn to AI for editing your drafts or coming up with ideas, not generating text. So, how does Merlin AI fare on that front?
Let’s cut to the chase: it fares as well as ChatGPT, Claude, or Llama would. We pasted a draft and asked the chatbot – this time Mixtral – to “make it more engaging to read.” To its credit, the chatbot did a good job, significantly improving the word choice.
We then asked the AI chatbot to come up with five titles for an essay on the benefits and constraints of socialism. Since the web access was still on, the chatbot added sources to each title, for some reason. (And surprise-surprise, not all of those links weren’t even relevant.)
We then asked the chatbot to create an outline for an essay on the same topic. And… we got an error in return:
We repeated our request, and, this time, we got an outline, although it was poorly formatted:
On top of that, the links added to the outline weren’t relevant at all this time; they all led to how-to guides on creating essay outlines.
Merlin AI’s Mobile App
The mobile apps’ popularity – and their high ratings – were the thing that put Merlin AI on our radar in the first place. So, we couldn’t consider this review complete without testing them, too.
We installed the iOS app and… hoped for a similar experience to that of the Chrome extension on the desktop. While the app wasn’t horrible, it felt a bit limited. We appreciated the ability to generate content with GPT-3.5 on the go, but the text didn’t contain citations even though the web access was on.
After testing the Chrome extension, were disappointed to see no support for this kind of feature on mobile. Hopefully, this will change soon, since that was the main selling point of Merlin AI for us.
Merlin AI vs Plagiarism & AI Checkers
Finally, is Merlin AI safe to use for essay generation? To answer this question, we ran our generated text through two plagiarism checks first. No surprises there: the texts were deemed 95% and 93% original. That’s the key advantage of generative AI – content created with its help doesn’t raise any plagiarism flags.
Now, AI scans are a different story. Both AI checkers we used on the generated essay were unanimous in their verdict: this content is AI-generated. The text generated with ChatGPT and refined by Mixtral suffered the same fate both times.
Keep in mind that Turnitin now automatically runs AI scans on all submissions. So, even if you don’t think your instructor is likely to suspect AI use, it may not be entirely up to them to decide whether or not to run an AI scan.
To Sum Up: Merlin AI’s Pros & Cons
So, is Merlin AI good? Well, it depends on what you’re planning to use it for. Merlin AI is great for summing up pages and getting answers to your questions. It can also help you come up with ideas and outlines or refine your drafts like any of the AI models included.
But if you’re expecting a tool that can generate essays with reliable citations, Merlin AI isn’t for you.
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Is MerlinAI affordable?
It is, compared to multiple premium subscriptions to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and the rest of AI models Merlin AI includes in its bundle. However, as far as AI writing tools for academic needs can go, Merlin AI isn’t worth the price tag.
How does Merlin AI work?
Merlin AI allows you to use a variety of existing AI models within one chatbot interface. It also integrates AI search and summarization features into your browsing experience (via a Chrome extension). Merlin AI’s other features include access to image generation models and YouTube video and document summarization.
Can Merlin AI generate essays and academic papers?
Technically, yes – but don’t expect an A-grade quality out of it. Even though you can give the chatbot access to the internet, the sources it produces are hardly academic – and sometimes irrelevant, too. You’ll also need to humanize the generated text to pass AI checkers.
Will Merlin AI content pass a plagiarism check?
Yes. AI-generated content is typically considered original by plagiarism checkers, so tools like Turnitin usually find it plagiarism-free. Keep in mind, however, that unless you take steps to humanize the content yourself, it won’t pass AI scans.
What platforms can I use Merlin AI on?
You can use some of Merlin AI's tools, like the chatbot, via its web interface in any browser. Using its AI search and webpage summarization features requires a Chrome extension, however. Merlin AI also offers mobile apps for both Android and iOS users.
Is Merlin AI free to use?
Merlin AI has a free plan with a limit of 102 queries/day. Its features are only somewhat limited compared to the paid plan. However, you may not be able to accomplish a lot within a day: generating a single 471-word text with GPT-3.5 cost us 22 queries, for example.
*Screenshots used for review and criticism purposes fall under the 'fair use' doctrine of the United States Copyright Law.
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