The era of artificial intelligence is finally here. While AI itself has been around for decades, nothing we’ve seen in recent history holds a candle to the suddenly accelerated progress we’ve witnessed over the past 8 months alone. Things really got started when OpenAI released ChatGPT late in 2022 after being acquired by Microsoft in 2020. A few months later, Google announced their competitor to the generative AI, Bard. Let’s spotlight this competition with a comprehensive look at Bard vs ChatGPT.
Because this height of artificial intelligence is so new, crucial questions about the future direction of its development remain prominent in many spaces and conversations, regardless of which AI model we’re discussing. This is to say that while this technology is extremely exciting and holds massive potential, it’s far from flawless.
Additionally, artificial intelligence is designed to advance at a rapid rate, as it constantly learns from its own mistakes and teaches itself. However, the regulations, laws, and human counterparts involved still need to catch up to AI in many ways.
Some of these early issues with AI will be fairly obvious as we delve deeper into each with our Bard vs ChatGPT comparison.
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Covering Microsoft ChatGPT
Microsoft and OpenAI have had quite the run with their partnership. OpenAI specifically caught the attention of the entire world with their public release of the strongest large language model (LLM) to ever be seen. The technology was so impressive it’s since garnered a staggering 100 million users. Not only that, OpenAI and Microsoft continue to make improvements, as they’re now onto iteration GPT4.
Many users rave about ChatGPT’s versatility, capability, and ability to open them up to new possibilities. This has especially been true in the area of content creation. Albeit, there are quite a few loops you have to jump through to create quality content with the technology.
Microsoft sees no brake pedal when it comes to AI, however, as they’ve now integrated ChatGPT, in the form of a chatbot, into their search engine, Bing. Microsoft rolled out this integration earlier in 2023 and it has received a somewhat mixed response.
Microsoft’s ChatGPT integration with Bing search certainly gives us a look at the future of search and the role AI will play. However, ChatGPT has also been the source of several public blunders, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and even faces some legal questions as well.
Finally, in a direct Google Bard vs ChatGPT and Bing face-off, the ChatGPT Bing search companion answered the first question by incorrectly attributing the first ever photograph of a planet outside our solar system to the James Webb Space Telescope when, in fact, this feat was accomplished in 2004 by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.
Though, to be fair, Google Bard also got this question wrong. Twice.
A Closer Look at Google Bard
Google Bard was announced in February of this year, just a short few months after the public release of ChatGPT. However, the unveiling of Google’s initial AI rival to the Microsoft ChatGPT model could have gone better.
Actually, it went so poorly that the release of Bard was delayed quite significantly. This is mainly because it answered a crucial question about astronomy incorrectly. At its debut, Google Bard attributed the first photograph of a planet outside of our solar system to the James Webb Space Telescope. If this sounds familiar, it’s because we talked about this same incorrect answer when covering Microsoft ChatGPT.
One of the key differences to note when comparing Bard vs ChatGPT is in their fundamental modeling.
Where Microsoft ChatGPT with Bing is a true chatbot in nature – built as a large language model – Bard on the other hand, is being developed with a variety of models and applications in mind. Perhaps most notably is Google's partnership with Adobe that will bring image generation capabilities to the Bard AI model.
Another couple of points to know about Google Bard are that it allows users to code, and it may even be trained with the data of the entire internet, as recently reported.
Is Google Bard or Microsoft ChatGPT Better?
When it comes down to it, Google Bard and Microsoft ChatGPT are pretty much evenly matched.
They have both fumbled the ball in various crucial public moments, yet they each bring their own sets of strengths and weaknesses to search powered by artificial intelligence. That being said, Google Bard is in its infancy as far as public use goes and seems to be making strong progress, whereas ChatGPT has already seen several iterations.
Additionally, Google has only recently confirmed that Bard will be trained with public information scraped from the web, so its development will be well worth tracking into the next weeks and months.
Final Thoughts on Google Bard vs ChatGPT
Artificial intelligence is quickly advancing. The further it does, the more we'll start to see it folded into the regular day-to-day of society. In some ways, it largely already is. One of the most prevalent ways that AI is already used today is in the form of voice search.
“More than 1 billion voice searches take place every month.”
Now that ChatGPT is integrated with Bing and Google has released Bard, these tools will only become more and more advanced. Having the right people and partnerships in place will keep you on pace to remain competitive in the modern digital-first economy.
If you’re looking for more ways to integrate technology into your organization, watch Impact’s webinar, How to Identify High-Value Opportunities for Innovation.
