As tech giants increasingly launch their own generative AI solutions, IBM and Google recently did the unthinkable. We have not only released our AI chatbot Bard in 180 countries, but also added several new features such as new languages, easy text export to Google Docs and Gmail, visual search, and dark mode.
And even if this didn’t shock competitors a bit, Google is also promising features like AI image generation with Adobe and integration with third-party web services like OpenTable and Instacard. And Google has held fast to our DNA of waiting for someone to innovate and following seamlessly, sometimes shamelessly, with our own solutions. Anyone remember his Gmail vs. Hotmail story in the early 2000s?
Google developed a fast one here
Before we share our thoughts on the inevitable comparison that many have made between OpenAI’s ChatGPT (now partnered with Microsoft) and Bard AI, we wanted to make sure that this report retains some degree of objectivity. Let’s get the facts straight. Otherwise, you end up with a very subjective comparison.
First, Google surprised us with their decision to roll out Bard to the rest of the world after releasing it about two months ago and then only to a select few users in the US and UK. The company also said at the time that it was an experiment and not a search engine replacement. Additionally, the first demo had a shocking moment.
Differences between Bard and ChatGPT
Now that the hard part has been worked out, a quick comparison with ChatGPT suggests:
- It’s already a search engine, but ChatGPT isn’t a search engine (this is where Bing AI comes in). I tried some searches on Bard and got real-time results. This means that Google has been indexing content in virtual worlds for years, helping us find the most relevant and up-to-date information from the web.
- It was a pleasure to actually have a conversation with Bard and have him enter the results. Most of the queries we posed yielded correct results, but some were local language queries where he needed more than one or two prompts. But that’s the nature of the beast, just like when we speak Siri or Android Assistant.
- One feature we found interesting was the ability to summarize web results to provide a gist of what could be long text. We copied and pasted the URL of a page detailing the legal battle, and Bird actually provided a neat and compelling summary of the same. Additionally, you can give Bard a number of characters to summarize.
- Bard also has a way to draft multiple responses. This means you can provide feedback on the fly or choose the closest match to your query or additional prompts. Of course, the easier option is to continually prompt Bard to fine-tune the response to suit your requirements.
- Most programmers may find Bard’s ability to explain code rather intriguing. However, this is a useful feature if you are learning a new programming language or trying to debug existing code. The chatbot will generate a detailed description of the code and also respond to additional queries regarding the code.
- Google’s search supremacy means Bard can even suggest appropriate queries to get additional information on the topic you’re looking for. Typing “suggest” after a query or prompt will cause Bard to generate several Google searches related to the topic, clicking on which will take the user further down that path.
We are still experimenting with this system and may come up with more use cases, but we would appreciate it if readers could share their feedback in the comments section directly below. Of course, one very important factor that distinguishes ChatGPT from Google Bard is that the bard sings for free, at least for now.
