ChatGPT vs Bard (now Gemini): The Key Difference
A bard’s tale of Googling Answers vs. Asking ChatGPT
Author's note: A long long time ago (barely a year) when Google's Chatbot went by the name of Bard, I attempted parodying an actual Bard to dissect how it differed from OpenAI's ChatGPT. Unfortunately, Google's Bard got imposter's syndrome and evolved into Google's Gemini, leaving this blog to ironically be a Bard's tale of a Bard's tale (before it turned into Gemini) - if you get my drift...
As an assurance that this blog is written by a human and not by some AI conversational chatbot, let me begin as a human bard would...
"... T’was only yesterday …” that it was the norm for everyone - in personal and professional capacities - to seek answers for any question or challenge they had by - “Just Googling it!”
Then, a sudden new viral storm took the internet and everyone started Googling OpenAI’s ChatGPT (an advanced online chatbot) for solutions instead. Now, there’s a new lingo formulating on the block and it’s starting to say - “Ask ChatGPT”.
How did this come about? It was prophesied in the ONE KEY DIFFERENCE in the TWO DIFFERENT WAYS people searched for things on the internet. One way that people search for things is by asking specific questions, for example - “what is ChatGPT?”, like so:
The other type of way people search for answers on the internet is by asking conversational questions. For example, typing the following search - “I wake up every morning after going to sleep at night, do I have cancer?”, or typing the following search - “How is Google trying to reclaim the plus 100 million users that now search for answers on ChatGPT?”
Here’s what you get when you “ask ChatGPT” this question:
Since “Googling” the exact same conversational question doesn’t get you relevant results, Google has already launched a more literal and literary response to ChatGPT in the form of a certain - Bard. “Nay, not akin to a true wannabe bard like the writer of this blog…”, rather a conversational AI developed by Google, Bard is designed to constantly draw information in real-time from the internet and to respond to users less mechanically by using more natural speech.
To put it as an actual Bard in a tavern would - “Thus, Google tooketh up the gauntlet and attempteth an eloquent response by building their own - even more conversational - AI Chatbot. Yet, what leaneth in Google’s favor in this AI tug-of-war is not its promise of eloquence, but the fact that it is Google. What if users could now continue to Google their direct questions and freely ask their conversational questions as well from AI in the same place? After all, unlike ChatGPT, Google has the best access to real-time information on the internet… Sure enough, Microsoft’s Bing has already reinvented their search by incorporating ChatGPT into their search engine (an other search engines hath followed suit in adding AI to their search engine)… And thus, the War of AI continues to only just begin…”
Incidentally, this isn't how Google's Bard spoke at all. Rather, here's how it responded to one of the questions I asked it (proving that being stereotypically bad is still an exclusive human trait I possess):
ChatGPT vs Bard: A Googled/ChatGPT’d overview
"Before I to continue, let’s raise a glass and toss a coin to SEO, by summarizing…"
What is ChatGPT?
Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT is an advanced AI language model that uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to text prompts. It is based on the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture that has been trained “on a diverse range of text data, including books, articles, and websites”, and it can generate responses to a wide variety of requests, from article writing, code-related problem solving, language translation, writing love letters and dialogues, all the way to poems praising itself:
Fun fact: ChatGPT didn't even know that Google’s Bard existed (when it did)... But more on that soon.
How was Google’s Bard different from ChatGPT?
Bard was a conversational AI developed by Google and powered by Google’s LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications). While Bard did a lot of the things that ChatGPT did, it claimed to do so in an even more conversational way. It claimed to support over 20 programming languages, roughly translated text in more languages than ChatGPT (100+ vs 50+), and could do all the creative tasks that ChatGPT does.
While creativity is subjective, let’s look at a more objective difference between Bard and ChatGPT. Above all, Bard claimed to be trained on a larger data set of text, code, images, conversations, and most importantly - real-time information from the internet. And that last clincher brings us to the key difference between both these chatbosts. To reiterate, Google’s Bard is trained on real-time information on the internet, while by ChatGPT’s own admission, the knowledge cut-off date for data it has been trained on is limited (it was September 2021 when this blog was first written)!
Here’s what you got when you asked ChatGPT in 2023 - “what is ChatGPT’s knowledge cut-off date?”:
… In the meantime, here’s what you got when you asked Bard what its knowledge cut-off date is:
Search - the key difference between ChatGPT and Google’s Bard
To elaborate what was said at the beginning, it all comes down to how people prefer to search things. And while ChatGPT is an incredibly useful tool that is leading the AI Chatbot race, the many places that it is lacking will be more in plain sight, when users learn how to use AI Chatbots more intelligently.
To re-emphasize, a key area where ChatGPT is severely lacking is in delivering accurate answers, especially for research-related questions. And while conversational AI chatbots may not primarily be meant for research, it can be argued that frequent users will tend to ask objective questions that will require access to real-time information gathering for accurate responses.
It’s not wise to use ChatGPT, Bard, or any AI tool for “copy-pasting” text, except when copy-pasting what it suggests into an actual search site and verifying what it says. Avoid relying onChatGPT for statistics or current information, because it has a limited knowledge cut-off date (which at the time of writing this blog was 2021), and if it suggests facts and figures - always ask for sources and links. And if it provides links, DO NOT FORGET TO VERIFY THE LINKS.
Here’s an example:
Important note: most of the suggested links by ChatGPT led me to 404 pages
When I asked Bard what it could list sources and links for, it listed a bunch of topics. However, when I asked it to share sources and links for a specific fact it said it couldn't do that since it was only a language model. On asking Bard why it wouldn't provide sources or links, here's what it said:
Bottom line: AI ChatBots aren't a quick hack to finding factual information (yet), although it's important to note that Bard didn't share any inaccurate links when prompted.
On the other hand, one of the biggest problems with Googling things, especially for research, is not knowing how to ask the right questions, or how to get the best creative suggestions. Thus, using ChatGPT as a starting point for your research, for creative suggestions, or for first-draft ideas is very useful, since it summarizes key points or suggests ideas on a topic exceptionally well.
What is Gemini and how is it different from Bard and ChatGPT?
Google Gemini is a cutting-edge language model family developed by Google AI. It builds upon Google's earlier language models like LaMDA and PaLM, making significant advances in how it interacts with and understands the world.
When I asked Gemini how it was different from Bard, here's what it said: "In October 2023, Google Bard transitioned to using the underlying technology of the Gemini family of AI models, specifically the "Gemini Pro" version. This change reflected the fact that Gemini offered several improvements over Bard:
- Data and Training: Gemini is trained on a much larger and more diverse dataset compared to Bard. This includes not only text but also code, images, and audio, allowing it to have a broader understanding of the world and language.
- Capabilities: As a result of the richer training data, Gemini possesses a wider range of capabilities compared to Bard. It excels at generating different creative text formats, translating languages, writing different kinds of creative content."
As for how Gemini differs from ChatGPT, here's what it has to say: "Gemini leverages Google Search technology, allowing it to access and process real-time information from the internet, potentially providing more up-to-date responses. This difference can be crucial for tasks requiring the latest information, although it's important to note both models are still under development and constantly evolving."
On the other hand, ChatGPT (3.5) never got to know Bard because of its earlier 2021 knowledge cut-off date. Funny thing is, it doesn't really know who Gemini is as well, due its current 2022 knowledge cut-off.
How can businesses use technologies like OpenAI?
Keeping aside its inability to train itself on real-time search data from the internet like Bard, OpenAI's ChatGPT is still incredibly powerful when it comes to solving problems. It's great for executing mundane tasks and automating repetitive, time-consuming manual tasks like writing generic emails, summarizing information, rewriting text, suggesting new ideas, or writing descriptions.
In fact, the Alumio iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service) provides modern businesses with a connector package to integrate OpenAI with their business processes. In the world of e-commerce and digital integrations, this helps businesses automate some of the aforementioned manual tasks, including automatically generating product descriptions, creating sales emails, writing picture descriptions, and generating customer support responses to common questions.
Explore all the automation that the Alumio OpenAI Connector provides by reading our blog on: Integrating the Future with OpenAI
In conclusion
Like any true good Bard’s story, most of what’s stated in this blog is subject to perspective and meant to inspire thought rather than to lay down facts as objective truths. Since I’m a human bard, I get to have my subjective perspective on such stories and will mostly be forgiven for creative liberties taken.
However, when it comes to AI Bards and ChatGPTs, they may draw human consumers in with the lure of conversation, but it is my opinion that they will always be judged based on the accuracy of the information that they provide. Because, let’s face it - when it comes to having hypothetical conversations - there’s no beating the unpredictability of how inaccurate human conversations can be. So why wouldn’t/shouldn't we expect anything but accuracy when chatting with AI?
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