An AI assistant can explain a word in context. It can also ask you to sign up, hand over an API key, wait for a network round trip, and read a paragraph in a chat window — every single time you meet a word you do not know.
| Gloss | An AI assistant | |
|---|---|---|
| Answers in context | Yes | Yes — better, in fact |
| An account | None | One, and an API key |
| A network request per lookup | None | One, every time |
| Answers a word it has never seen | Says so | Usually |
| Works offline | Yes | No |
| What it costs you | Nothing | A subscription, and tokens |
| Time from selecting a word to reading it | Instant | Seconds, plus a copy and a paste |
On words no dictionary has — a coinage, a piece of jargon from your industry, a name you have not seen. It can often work it out from the sentence. Gloss says "not in the dictionary" and offers you a search, because it would rather be honest than clever.
On the fourth word of a paragraph you are halfway through. An assistant wants a conversation; Gloss wants a panel. One of them is a thing you use twenty times a day while reading, and the other is a thing you use when you have already stopped reading.
They are not really rivals: Gloss for the words, an assistant for the sentences. But only one of them is instant, costs nothing to run, and works on a plane.