The AI and I: Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay. [Part 2 of 3]

A CHATGPT vs. BING vs. BARD SHOWDOWN!

Okay, I understand the history of AI and want to give this thing a go. Where do I even start? Great question! Right now there are three main chatbots: ChatGPT (OpenAI), Bing (Microsoft), and Bard (Google). Each has its own strengths and limitations which we’ll cover later in this post. People have built upon this AI to do some pretty amazing things – AI that can build presentation slides, read x-rays, and fill in rips and tears in old photographs! 🤯 But since we’re just starting out we’ll keep it simple. No need to develop AI that can detect disease in human breath! Let’s just see which of these chatbots will be the best fit for YOU. 

CHATGPT

OpenAI “trained” ChatGPT by having it ingest the entire Internet – talk about a heavy meal! Because ChatGPT has seen the Internet, it can be used in a whopping 95 languages! The biggest thing to keep in mind with ChatGPT is that its training ended in September 2021. What does this mean? It doesn’t know about the hip new bistro that just opened down the street. It won’t know about the “Barbie” movie or anything that happened after 2021 which is now almost two years ago. A lot can happen in two years. Despite this, ChatGPT IS incredibly helpful. Here are areas where it excels:

 PROS

1. Straightforward Sign Up: it’s incredibly easy to get started with ChatGPT. Simply go to ChatGPT (openai.com) and follow the prompts to create an account. Bam! You’re in business!

2. Versatility: ChatGPT can handle a wide range of tasks, from answering questions and providing information to engaging in casual conversation. Its versatility makes it applicable across any industry.

3. Language Understanding: ChatGPT demonstrates impressive language understanding. It can grasp context and nuances in user prompts and generate human-like responses, enhancing the user experience. And as we mentioned earlier, ChatGPT can understand and respond in multiple languages, broadening its accessibility to a global audience.

4. Practice Makes More Perfect: the more you interact with ChatGPT, the more it learns and the more sophisticated it becomes. You can even train it to mimic your writing style!

5. Steal Of A Deal: ChatGPT-3.5 is free with no prompt limitations. You can upgrade to ChatGPT-4 which is more sophisticated, but you do have to pay $20 per month. (The upgraded plan gives users priority access, faster response times, and higher-quality responses.)

CONS

As much as it can do, ChatGPT is far from perfect. Here are some drawbacks of using it:

1.  Lack of Real Understanding: while ChatGPT can generate impressive responses, it doesn’t actually have genuine comprehension or consciousness. It does not "understand" the meaning of words or concepts, it just relies on patterns learned during training.

2.  Generating Incorrect or Inappropriate Responses: ChatGPT occasionally “hallucinates” or produces inaccurate or nonsensical answers, leading to potential misinformation. It may also generate inappropriate or biased content, reflecting the biases present in its training data. Since it learned from the Internet, it learned the good, bad, quirky and everything in between. It cannot, however, curse, insult, or harass customers or other chatbots.

3. Limited Context: ChatGPT has a limited memory so it may struggle with retaining context in long conversations, leading to inconsistent responses or not fully addressing complex queries. This is why prompt engineering (which we’ll learn in the next post) is so critical!

4. Lack of Control: while efforts have been made to make AI systems like ChatGPT safer, there is still the possibility of generating harmful content or engaging in malicious activities if misused.

5. Dependency on Training Data: the quality and biases present in the training data can significantly impact its behavior. In other words, biased data can lead to biased responses, reinforcing harmful stereotypes or opinions.

BING

Microsoft invested heavily in OpenAI and uses ChatGPT to power its chatbot “Bing.” Unlike ChatGPT, Bing is connected to the Internet, draws upon the web when it generates responses, and provides links to the sources it uses. Its “training” didn’t end so it will know about current happenings. Sounds great right? Well, like ChatGPT, Bing has its own pros and cons. Let’s look at the advantages first:

PROS

1. Up-To-Date Info: as mentioned earlier, Bing is connected to the Internet, so it doesn’t have limitations in information like ChatGPT whose training ended in 2021.

2. Customization Options: Bing gives customization options to fit the chatbot’s responses to the business’s branding requirements.

3. Advanced Analytics & Reporting: Bing provides analytics and reporting functionalities, allowing users to monitor chatbot performance, analyze user interactions, and glean valuable insights for continual improvement.

4. Microsoft Apps: because Bing is a Microsoft product, it integrates with other Microsoft products.

5. Chat Modes: Bing offers three “chat modes” – Creative (original & imaginative chat), Balanced (informative & friendly chat), and Precise (concise & straightforward). The “creative” mode is closest to ChatGPT’s default mode.

6. Edge Browser: if you are a fan of Microsoft Edge, good news! Bing ONLY works in Edge.

CONS

Some of the cons of Bing chat are:

1. Edge Browser: if you hate Microsoft Edge, bad news. Bing ONLY works in Edge.

2. Per Day Limits: Bing limits users to 150 conversations per day with a max of 15 chats per session.

3. Character Limits: conversations are limited to 2,000 characters per prompt.

4.  No Upgraded Subscription Option: Bing does not currently offer an upgraded plan that removes limits on conversations, chats, and characters.

BARD

PROS

While ChatGPT and Bing run on GPT-4, Google’s Bard runs on its own LaMBA and PaLM 2 large language models. Like Bing, Bard is also connected to the Internet, so it can access current information for its responses. Bard has its perks:

1. Generates Human-Like Text: Bard can generate text that is similar to human-written text, making it a valuable tool for creative writing, generating marketing copy, and other tasks that require natural-sounding language.

2. Access Real World Information: as mentioned earlier, Bard can access and process current information through Google Search, making it a powerful tool for research and fact-finding.

3. Still Developing: Bard is currently in the development phase, but it is continuously learning and advancing to enhance its capabilities.

CONS

As with the other two chatbots, Bard has its limitations too:

1. Bias: Bard is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, which means that it can be biased in its output. Unsurprisingly, this is a potential problem for tasks that require objective or unbiased results.

2. Inaccurate: Bard is still under development, which means that it can sometimes be inaccurate in its output. So be vigilant with tasks that require accurate or reliable results.

3. Repetitive: Bard can sometimes be repetitive in its output, but this is a problem that is likely to be addressed as it continues to learn and improve.

Now you may be thinking, this is nice, but how do I start saving time, energy, and money? Two words: prompt engineering. In the next post we’ll become prompt engineers and learn how to craft strong prompts.💡Remember, with chatbots you get out what you put in (“garbage in, garbage out”) so we want to start strong to end strong! 💪

Chatbots are neither sophisticated nor complex enough to replace you. You can use them to work faster and smarter, but you still have to work! At this point, think of chatbots as an excellent, but overly compliant assistant. They can help you brainstorm and generate ideas, but they’ll never tell you if your idea is stupid.