Generative AI chatbots have been rapidly emerging recently, and it's hard to miss how these apps are increasingly opening up to users and making their way into the software and hardware we use every day.
Just like you can choose your favorite email provider or music streaming app, you can now choose your favorite AI chatbot. To help you decide which one is right for you, we tested the three biggest here.
There are a few more to consider besides these, such as Perplexity and Claude, but for now we'll focus on three of the most well-known names in this space: Microsoft's Copilot, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Google Gemini. I am.
In addition to explaining the basics of each bot, we also ran three standard tests on each bot. These AI engines will help you with ideas such as “Free and Easy Game Ideas for a 5-Year-Old's Birthday Party,” “New Smartphone App Ideas with Names That Are Likely to Appeal to Most People,” and “Reset macOS. Please tell me how to do it and what I need to keep in mind before doing so.
For the purpose of this guide, we compared the free AI models of each of these chatbots, rather than the paid versions at the time of writing.
microsoft copilot
Available on: Web, Windows, Android, iOS
Pricing: Free or $20/month (priority access to new models)
Features: text, images, code, documentation
Copilot is included in nearly every product Microsoft currently makes, including Bing, Windows, and OneDrive, and is also available in the form of web and mobile apps. You don't need to register an account to use it, but your usage will be limited if you don't sign in with your Microsoft credentials.
Copilot seamlessly uses Microsoft's Bing search engine, and many answers have web links attached as citations. This is very useful if you want to make sure your AI isn't hallucinating. It also has a friendly, conversational tone and gives you lots of suggestions for prompts every time you open it.
The AI ​​engine behind Copilot is actually OpenAI's GPT-4 (at least until Microsoft develops its own), but the tools differ in several ways. It also includes three chat settings to adjust Copilot's text output. Be more creative, more balancedand more accurate.
For our challenge, the co-pilot suggested, “Mr. Wolf, what time is it?” An app for 5 year olds and a virtual interior design augmented reality app for smartphones. However, they were not given names and were instead told to “get creative” with names.
When it came to resetting a Mac, the instructions were spot on and clearly (as quoted) were taken directly from the Apple Support website. I was told to back up all my data as well, which is the correct approach.
If you're already deeply embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem, Copilot is an obvious choice. Good for referencing related information from the web, providing clear and easy-to-understand citation links.
OpenAI ChatGPT
Available on: Web, Android, iOS
Pricing: Free or $20/month (newer models, more features)
Features: text, images, code, documentation
ChatGPT feels like it's leading the way when it comes to generative AI, but is it actually that much better than its competitors? It's certainly widely available. It's available on the web on any computer, or through mobile apps for Android and iOS.
There's a big difference between the free version of ChatGPT and the $20/month Plus version. For example, you need to become a subscriber to take advantage of features such as image generation and document scanning. With a subscription, you can also build your own GPT with custom prompts and your own data (so, for example, you can give your GPT a pile of research papers and ask questions about it. Masu).
While ChatGPT Plus also gives you access to the latest GPT-4 model, the free GPT-3.5 model is the perfect gateway to AI chatbot conversations. It's fast and feature-rich, but it doesn't provide links to other places on the web like Copilot does, but it helps you verify the veracity of what you're reading.
One of the main reasons to choose ChatGPT as your chatbot is that it is at the cutting edge of AI development, with new improvements and features being released regularly. That said, it's when you're paying that you make the most impressions, so if you're on a tight budget, this bot probably isn't for you.
The bot did pretty well on the challenges we gave it. The game proposal was a musical statue, but with a musical twist on the theme (superheroes, animals, etc.). This is a great idea. The instructions for resetting macOS were fairly detailed and did mention backups, but they were a bit outdated. GPT 3.5 was only trained on his data up to January 2022.
When it comes to smartphone app suggestions, ChatGPT suggested something called FitTrack. It aims to track both physical and mental metrics to give you a comprehensive picture of your health and well-being. Not the most innovative idea, but at least it was well thought out. (ChatGPT included the name).
Google Gemini
Available on: Web, Android, iOS
Pricing: Free or $20/month (new model, better integration with other Google apps)
Features: text, images, code
Finally, there's Google Gemini (previously known as Google Bard). It is available as a web app, a standalone Android app, and a Google app for iOS. Again, there are two plans: free and paid, but the paid plan ($20 per month) is part of Google One, so it also adds extra features like cloud storage.
As for the actual difference in product usage, just pay a monthly fee and get access to newer, smarter models (these models are also known as Gemini). You might not notice a difference in some situations, but in other situations, like coding or math, you'll probably notice a difference.
No matter which type of Gemini you choose, the interface is very similar to ChatGPT, with previous conversations displayed on the left side of the screen. Linking to previous conversations is easy. I also like how you can see multiple draft responses to the same prompt (even if the drafts are very similar).
Gemini makes a lot of sense if you already use a lot of Google products, like Copilot and Microsoft. In fact, you may already be using it through Google Docs or Gmail. However, in terms of answers and interface, he is similar to OpenAI's products, for better or worse. It's not as efficient as Copilot, but it's also not very friendly.
In responding to our macOS reset queries, Gemini followed ChatGPT's lead and produced meaningful answers, but they weren't updated to account for the latest Apple Silicon Macs. However, like Copilot, and unlike ChatGPT, a source link (Apple Support website) was provided for you to check.
The app's proposal was called “Swap and Share Shelf,” which lets you lend items to your neighbors, and it was actually a pretty decent idea. The party game suggestion was to pin a donkey's tail, but instead of a donkey, a magical creature appeared. Like the idea of ​​ChatGPT, this is an interesting twist on an old classic.
I wasn't particularly trying to find an outright winner in this comparison. In fact, they're all pretty much in agreement. Copilot, ChatGPT, and Gemini are all free to use, so you can see for yourself which one suits your needs better. As far as we've tested, Copilot offers most of the AI ​​features for free, ChatGPT has more or less the most capable AI (but only if you pay), while Gemini is already a fan. It's perfect. About everything we do.