Google’s Bard has been released to the public, marking the beginning of the great AI chatbot wars. Although they are functionally similar, the two chatbots have some key differences.
ChatGPT vs. Bard
Current Information
Winner: Bard
ChatGPT was trained on a massive data set scraped from the entire internet….. in 2021. Bard was trained on Infiniset, which can crawl the internet in real-time. If you want to ask about anything after 2021, Bard will be your go-to. ChatGPT has attempted to compete with Bard here by creating a plugin that will allow ChatGPT to pull answers from more current information. Bard was always intended to be used for searching current information, so it still comes out on top.
Advanced Capabilities
Winner: ChatGPT
ChatGPT is capable of far more complex tasks like coding, while Bard can only provide answers in the form of natural language responses. GPT4, OpenAI’s updated model, is supposed to expand ChatGPTs capabilities even further. GPT4 includes visual processing – it is said to be able to turn a sketch from a napkin into a fully functioning website. ChatGPT also offers multi-language support, while Bard only knows English.
Example of ChatGPT’s coding skills
Accuracy
Winner: Tied
The jury is still out on this one. Both ChatGPT and Bard make factual mistakes and will be wildly confident while doing so. Bard made a noticeable mistake during it’s debut which was picked up on by the media almost immediately, which hurt Bard’s initial PR. However, ChatGPT made a similar mistake during Microsoft’s debut of ai-search in Edge, but it wasn’t picked up on until weeks later. So it turns out they are both wrong…sometimes.
Bard is attempting to solve this problem by using “Drafts”. Bard will generate multiple answers to every prompt, allowing you to select the best one. Showing you multiple answers to the same question may help you identify any one-off mistakes, but it may still provide inaccurate information. Maintain a healthy level of skepticism when it comes to both ChatGPT and Bard.
Personality
Winner: Depends on what you’re into (personally speaking, ChatGPT wins this one)
Bard prides itself on its ability to respond in an authentic human-like manner, but that can be off-putting to some people. Here is an example of Bard’s “personality”:
Source: Zapier
Bard is very committed to appearing human-like and will insist that it is capable of experiencing feelings. ChatGPT on the other hand is very dry, which is how many of us prefer our AI’s to be. Here’s how ChatGPT responds to a similar question:
As you can see, ChatGPT is all business.
The Winner | ChatGPT vs. Bard
So which chatbot is better? It depends. There is no clear winner because ChatGPT and Bard have different capabilities. Do you need current information, go with Bard. Do you need help with more complex tasks, use ChatGPT.
Both AI models are still in early testing stages; time will tell us which chatbot out-performs the other. Give Chat GPT a try today and get on the waitlist for Bard to form your own opinion!