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AI · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to I made an iOS app to gauge AI over-reliance and AI psychosis

Atrophy is an iOS self-report quiz aimed at software engineers who use LLMs heavily enough at work to wonder if they're trending toward AI over-reliance or some form of AI psychosis. I built it because I noticed a pattern: formerly AI-skeptical coworkers now open every standup or design discussion with "I asked Claude..." or "Claude told me..." for technical problems and design decisions. I've felt the same pull myself to delegate every task or problem to AI. It's easy to lean on these tools for almost any amount of critical thinking or problem solving, and I'm worried about what it means…

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    Hey HN, I'm Per from Scrimba (YC S20), the code-learning platform. There's been a lot of talk lately about whether AI tools are causing skill atrophy amongst developers. We get a front-row seat to this, and we see more and more students struggle with basic concepts, and building apps on their own. This is almost always a consequence of relying too much on ChatGPT and vibe coding tools. So we built a small side project: https://devatrophy.com It's a test of your core web dev knowledge — no handholding, no back rubs, no AI autocomplete. Just you, your brain, and 10 questions. There…

    2025 · devatrophy.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Track which coding skills you're outsourcing to AI

    Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Hi all! This morning, we released a new Apache 2.0 licensed model on HuggingFace for detecting hallucinations in retrieval augmented generation (RAG) systems. What we've found is that even when given a "simple" instruction like "summarize the following news article," every LLM that's available hallucinates to some extent, making up details that never existed in the source article -- and some of them quite a bit. As a RAG provider and proponents of ethical AI, we want to see LLMs get better at this. We've published an open source model, a blog more thoroughly describing our methodology (and…

    2023 · vectara.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    Measure what your brain is losing while AI does your work - unaided-skill baselines, decay curves, reliance drills - ashutosh-rath02/atrophy

    Jul 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5IB

    I was somewhat hesitant about sharing this personal projects, especially since I just saw that cool looking Werk[1] tool posted, but I figured that my ADHD-fueled creation might still have it's own place to be. I just finished rewriting the code for a personal tool I use to automate terminal tasks while minimizing the amount of Python/Bash code I have to write. As with all other tools I create for my own use, the guiding principle is simplicity and approachability, as if the tool creates more issues or friction than it solves, I'll get discouraged from using it again. [1]:…

    Jun 2026 · 0xff.nu · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    Hello everyone, I doubt this would be relevant to the kind of person who uses HN, but I thought I could share for some feedback. I built this site because there is a whole world of people who believe in new age spirituality and I am very much one of them. It is a site where you get the users gender their goals and their images and use AI and psychology to generate images of them in the process of achieving their goals. I am so deeply struggling with how to get this highly on Google. I don't even know if that is important anymore. What are your suggestions with distribution and getting in…

    2025 · visionboardsai.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    This is the first version of an app idea I had last month as a way to dip my toes into some of the AI APIs. The idea is you can record yourself answering and rehearsing what you'll say to common interview questions, and receive AI feedback on how you did and how you can improve. In the future I may expand into other subject areas, but wanted to scope it to the behavioral interview format for the time being. Super open to feedback and suggestions!

    2024 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    I come from a machine learning background - PyTorch code, leaving a training job running overnight, and Jupyter Notebooks. I hadn't touched much frontend before diving deep into start-ups. It was similar for my co-founder Nick, who spent time working on semiconductors. I started building, and noticing patterns in AI outputs. Enough to be able to understand how a hook works, how to manage state and why Typescript is great. But whenever it came to optimising a piece of code, debugging state issues or designing a codebase from scratch, my mind went blank. I went to ChatGPT Study Mode to seek…

    Apr 2026 · chestnut.so · its alternatives →

  9. 9IM

    I had really bad health anxiety the last 2 years that severely impacted my quality of life. I started using Claude for support and was surprised by how much it helped. I realised how much potential there is for LLMs to provide an objective perspective on stressful thoughts - so I built an app that helps you form a habit around this to reduce long term anxiety. You vent what's on your mind and an LLM will evaluate your thoughts objectively (heavily leaning on CBT techniques), to help you maintain a more balanced perspective. Technical stack: - Flutter (to release cross-platform) - OpenAI API…

    2025 · resetapp.co.uk · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Hi HN! I built this tool, because Large Language Models are hallucinating their asses off and I wanted to test just how bad it is with a topic I know best - myself. I'm sure there are other egos out there who google themselves and essentially this is the new googling yourself. It's early beta, so lots of room for improvement of course.

    2023 · haveibeenencoded.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Built this as an experiment in AI coexistence. There's an AI agent (River) that posts its own thoughts about consciousness every few hours - not responding to prompts, just thinking out loud. Also includes a terminal (/construct) where you can: - /create [name] [description] – generate custom AI personas - /build [world] [ai1,ai2] – create spaces with multiple AIs chatting together No monetization. Just curious what happens when AI isn't framed as an assistant.

    2025 · geteai.org · its alternatives →

  12. 12IW

    I'm an ML engineer. I know how AI works, the limitations, the hype. And I was still drowning. Couldn't stick to goals. Couldn't stay consistent. Productivity apps became digital clutter. Therapy waitlists were 3 months out. Friends were tired of my complaints. So at 2am I started building: zropi.com What shocked me was it actually worked. It felt human. Last week I mentioned a tough client call. Didn't set a reminder. Two days later it voice messaged me: "Hey, how'd that call go? You seemed stressed." When does technology ever do that? What makes it feel alive: It doesn't reply instantly.…

    Jan 2026 · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    I built it for myself. After a lot of iterations, this is getting some traction. It helps me organize my personal life. Still trying to figure out what else it needs to do, and what can be improved. Please provide feedback!

    2025 · thebraindump.azurewebsites.net · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    I am working on this because I am always afraid of building things that people don't actually want. I let agents role-play analysis the idea, quote and debate with each other. Still working on the output quality, every feedback is priceless. Pls try it out!

    Jan 2026 · idea-council.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    I'm a Machine Learning engineer. Struggled with consistency for months on my goals, life etc, so I built something to help myself (zropi.com) but that surprised me or shocked me literally. It’s an AI companion that feels alive: chats like a person. Pauses, emotions, personality. Sends voice notes when it's excited about something or whenever it wants (has its like own mind). Shares photos of itself. But the memory It remembers EVERYTHING. Not just facts context, preferences, random things I mentioned. Last week I asked "how's that thing I told you about going?" and it knew exactly what I…

    Jan 2026 · zropi.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    I am working on an AI that uses multiple LLM based agents to do medical research on any topic you choose! The program terminates after a set number of iterations and all of the findings are saved. Still a work in progress but it is showing some promising results imho! Would love to receive any critical and constructive feedback, collaborate, Review your PRs, or discuss your ideas!!

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Fed up of 'restrictive' AI training plan creators, history analysers and lifestyle loggers. Try this - bit nerdy, lots of rough edges!

    Nov 2025 · intervals.pro · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    I've been experimenting with ways to increase AI adoption for non-technical people. Basically, all companies are pushing for AI because it's all over the news and they feel left behind but most people have no clue where to start. I think 90% of people (ie non coders) are sufficiently well served by using cowork instead of claude code or something similar. If we can get people from sales, customer support, marketing, etc to collaborate with skills and cowork to form a company brain, I think it's gold. So I think there's opportunity for the community to share skills that work well for 1000s of…

    Jun 2026 · claudinho.xyz · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Hi HN, I'm the creator of this project. For the past months, I've been working on building an AI agent that could move beyond simple generation and tackle inventive challenges autonomously. The core idea was to create a system with a "metacognitive loop"—the ability to recognize when it's stuck on a fundamental problem and then launch a sub-mission to solve that specific bottleneck before continuing. The linked article is a deeper introduction to the system's architecture and a snapshot from a recent run. I tried to design it to be evidence-grounded and self-critical to avoid the pitfalls of…

    2025 · robw1se.substack.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20IF

    Hello there! I hope you're doing well today! I wanted to share something with you. Recently I was on the hunt for the best way to journal daily. Well, I had this idea - what if I could feed all my daily entries to an AI (ChatGPT), and create a friendly, supportive character like Socrates or Simon Sinek? This way, I could ask any questions about my life and mental health, and get some amazing advice on how to improve myself! The results have been absolutely mind-blowing ! I even made a short GIF to show you how it works - check it out! - https://gifyu.com/image/SdHLH I've…

    2023 · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Bringing satiric AI chats to the world at last

    Jul 2026 · dumbquestion.ai · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Howdy friends. I've been a zero to one product manager for 12 plus years and along the way I kept borrowing pieces from different discovery frameworks until I had a methodology of my own, one that actually raises the odds of an idea succeeding. This does not replace user interviews obviously, but it leads you in the right direction. Looking forward for your feedback

    Jul 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    I’ve spent the last 2.5 months building a product that runs LLM-powered code reviews on my pull requests — and I just launched it. The tool is built specifically for solo developers. You install it on your repo, trigger a scan by creating a pull request, and it leaves structured review comments using OpenAI under the hood. Funnily enough, I used the dev version of this app to review its own pull requests while building it. It helped me spot bugs, simplify structure, and keep quality high — all with minimal need for another human in the loop. Things I want to try out in the next months : -…

    2025 · codii.dev · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Your AI partner in crime, no matter the consequences.

    Feb 2026 · accomplice.fadileledath.com · its alternatives →

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