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The generative AI chatbot market is rapidly growing and while OpenAI’s ChatGPT might remain the most mainstream, there are many others on the market competing to be the very best for the general public, creatives businesses and anyone else looking to see how artificial intelligence can improve their day-to-day lives.
But which one is the best? ChatGPT may have been the first to go mainstream, but is it the market leader? Which companies have entered the generative AI chatbot space with a product worthy of taking on OpenAI’s offering?
Arguably the most popular on the market, other than ChatGPT, are Microsoft’s CoPilot, Claude by Anthropic and Gemini, which is owned by Google.
Here we look at all four of these popular generative AI chatbots and consider which one is the best for certain uses.
Key features of ChatGPT
At this point who hasn’t heard of ChatGPT? It was the first AI to go completely mainstream and show just how powerful AI can be to the wider public. It made such a splash, it reached one million active users within weeks of launching and now has over 180 million users worldwide and counting.
It’s creator, OpenAI, has worked tirelessly to keep it at the forefront of the market by launching new and improved features, including a Pro Version (GPT-4), web browsing capabilities and image generation, powered by Dall-E. There’s even the option to create your custom-made GPT-powered bot on any subject you want.
The free version, GPT-3.5, is only trained on human-created data up to January 2022, so it’s restrictive if you’re looking to use it for more up-to-date purposes involving real-time information. However, the Pro version, GPT-4, is available for $20 a month and is trained with data up to April 2023. Although that’s still relatively time-restrictive, it does also have access to the internet.
Is ChatGPT good?
Yes, at most taks, although it has had its controversies due to inaccuracies and misinformation, such as lawyers using it for case research and the chatbot fabricating historic cases. However, it remains a good first port of call for anyone just looking for an easy-to-use AI chatbot. It should be noted GPT-4 is significantly more effective than GPT-3.5, but the former is only available to paying users.
Key features of Microsoft CoPilot
CoPilot is Microsoft’s own generative AI chatbot, originating initially as a chat option on their search engine, Bing. It is now a stand-alone AI chatbot and is naturally built into all of Microsoft’s productivity and business tools, such as Windows and Microsoft 365.
Interestingly, Microsoft is a key investor in OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which was used to launch Bing Chat. GPT-4 continues to power CoPilot today and, like ChatGPT, also uses Dall-E to generate images.
That might sound like it’s no different to ChatGPT but Microsoft’s key USP with CoPilot is that it is ingested into all of the Microsoft tools and products billions of people use around the world every single day.
It behaves as an assistant to those who rely on the likes of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word and other 365 platforms to perform day-to-day tasks.
Is Microsfot CoPilot good?
The clue is in the name, but CoPilot is good for people who need help when using Microsoft’s extensive suite of tools, products, and software. It essentially behaves as an assistant, or co-pilot, inside these products.
From spreadsheets, text documents to computer code, CoPilot can help create it all with natural language prompts. Coders on the Microsoft-owned Github find it to be a very popular AI chatbot to use.
Key features of Google Gemini
Formerly called Bard, Gemini is owned by Google is another generative AI chatbot that is improving rapidly over time to rival GPT-4.
One major plus to Gemini is that it has no limit to the number of responses it can give you, unlike GPT-4 and CoPilot, which both have limits in this area.
That means you can essentially have long discussions with Google Gemini to find the information you require. On top of that, and rather unsurprisingly, Gemini bakes in a lot of the elements we’re all so used to from Google’s search engine. For example, if you ask it to help you plan a trip to a specific country, it will likely provide you with a map of that destination, using Google Maps, and may even dip into Google images to give you some kind of visual representation of the information it’s giving you.
Users can also add extensions, akin to Chrome extensions, for use in tools such as YouTube, Maps and Workspace.
Is Google Gemini good?
If you’re a big fan of Google products and apps, Gemini is likely the generative AI chatbot for you, but it’s also perfect if you’re looking for speedy interactions and unlimited prompts.
That’s because, while it isn’t faster than GPT-4, it has generally been found to be faster than CoPilot and GPT-3.5. But it’s not flawless and was recently caught up in controversy over the accuracy of its image generator amid claims it was ‘woke’.
Key features of Claude
The creators of Claude, Anthropic, is an AI company started by former OpenAI employees.
It’s something of an all-rounder, being a multi-modal chatbot with text, voice and document capabilities.
But the main praise it has had since its launch in early 2023 is the fluency of the conversations it can hold, its ability to understand the nuances in the ways humans communicate and its ability to refuse to generate harmful or unethical content, instead often suggesting alternative ways to accomplish what users are asking of it without breaking its own guidelines.
Claude recently launched Claude 3, which is a family of AI chatbots (Opus, Sonnet and Haiku) that offer varying levels of sophistication depending on what users require, and Anthropic claim its most powerful AI in the family, Opus, is almost 87% trained to undergraduate levels of knowledge and accuracy and 95% common knowledge and accuracy.
Is Claude good?
Claude’s extensive and powerful capabilities, such as being able to rapidly read, analyze and summarize uploaded files, make it a very useful generative AI chatbot for professionals.
It is also trained on real-time data, which undoubtedly speaks to Anthropic’s impressive claims of accuracy and levels of knowledge.
On Claude’s website, Anthropic claims it is a ‘next-generation AI assistant built for work and trained to be safe, accurate and secure.”
Featured Image: Ideogram
