Choose an AI provider

I'd only ever used Claude, so on this informal livestream I ran the same R tasks through Claude, Codex and Posit Assistant to see how different the answers were. The tasks used a fake food pantry dataset with three hidden problems in the code, and a Quarto rendering failure partway through turned out to be my own setup.

You'll learn:

• How to set up a fair comparison between AI providers: separate project copies, the same prompts, the same effort level, and a run sheet written in a different chat so the data doesn't bias the test
• A way to check an AI code review against known problems by opening the source files yourself, such as the duplicated Lane County row, inconsistent Multnomah capitalization, mixed date formats and suppressed counts that become NAs
• How the three providers handled review, fix and report tasks: Claude, Codex and Posit Assistant all caught the main data issues, and the differences were in follow-up questions, caveats and rendered output
• How cost, token-based billing and data retention differ between subscription tools and Posit AI Pass, including a much cheaper model that still flagged the data problems
• Why to check your own setup before blaming the model, shown by a Quarto render failure that came from a missing extension

Tools mentioned: Claude, Claude Opus 5.5, Codex, ChatGPT Plus, Posit Assistant, Posit AI Pass, GLM 5.3 Flash, GitHub Copilot, Positron, Quarto, Excel, lubridate

Key moments:

• 00:00 Informal start and audience check-in
• 03:04 Three projects set up, one per provider
• 03:44 Pantry report and run sheet explained
• 08:41 First test with Claude Opus in Positron
• 13:21 Running the same question in Codex
• 16:36 Switching to Posit Assistant
• 19:29 Cheaper models through Posit AI Pass
• 22:36 Zero data retention discussion
• 23:13 Newsletter question about the fall drop
• 27:10 Asking each tool to fix the statewide total
• 33:52 Annual report chart task
• 41:35 Short board report rendered with Quarto
• 46:40 Posit Assistant fails to render the report
• 48:43 Missing Quarto extension was the cause
• 49:35 Wrap-up and overall takeaways