I have been playing around with Perplexity AI lately. https://www.perplexity.ai
It uses ChatGPT for the back-end but, you don’t have to go through the sign-up process for ChatGPT. You don’t even have to create an account if you don’t want to.
I tried signing up for a ChatGPT account and it’s absolutely ridiculous. They have tests which you have to complete first (and some of them aren’t simple at all). Then, at the end, they demand you type a phone number. I used a VOIP number for my phone. But, they don’t allow VOIP accounts. You have to have a real phone number tied to a physical phone. If you don’t give them the phone number, they don’t allow you to complete the sign up process.
One nice feature of Perplexity AI is that they have a feature called “Copilot” which lets you use the ChatGPT-4 engine instead. (You have to sign up for an account to use this feature and you are limited to 5 searches per day). But, this way you can still use ChatGPT-4 without having to give them a phone number. Try it out! The search results are pretty good.