An old one I wrote back in 2023
Bard Versus Chat GPT- Which is best?
The looming AI Arms race
Introduction (Meta-description): So AI is everywhere! To start off with, I asked Chat GPT and Bard to write this article for me. Bard refused. But ChatGPT was more than gracious and wrote a 500+ word article that spoke of Bard as a creative tool and that itself, was better at coding and logical information generation. Machine diplomacy at its best!
When ChatGPT came out last November, its makers didn't think it would take the world by storm. It brought unanticipated profits to Open AI and sent academicians, communist countries, novel writers, and regulatory bodies scurrying for a boycott. This is not surprising, as history tells us that all new technologies face an unknown wrath at their onset. Take the telephone for example- People were suspicious of it and even thought it could make you deaf, as was propagated mainly by Telegraph companies for fear of competition! (Telephone History Social Reaction (schoelles.com)
The unexpected popularity of ChatGPT sent all the other IT giants into a frenzy!
Google’s Sundar Pichai took it personally, vouching to bring out its alternative, and rolled out Bard within a couple of months. Google built Bard on Large Language model called LaMDA (Language model for dialogue applications) and is designed to better calculate complex mathematical problems. Thus, the stage is set to race!
The Parent here for both Bard and ChatGPT is a specific type of neural network called the Transformer that was built with Python language programming, which was the buzz of tech talk as early as the 1980s. Google claims that ChatGPT is built on the Transformer architecture that was developed by its researchers back in 2017. Deep learning and Machine learning are most times used interchangeably and these models are trained on a massive amount of data from the internet to produce desired results based on the User’s query.
Companies have been experimenting and building Language models designed to understand human asks and needs in a more friendly interface since the late 90s. Among language programs and coding that ruled the roost like Javascript, SQL, or .Net till as early as 2021, nobody figured that the high tide coming from would be the old Python!
Both ChatGPT and Bard are projected to have applications across fields of Financial markets, Medicine, Education, Cyber Security, and Economics. They support more than 100 languages (Chatgpt wrote an essay for me in Kannada and Bard composed a poem in Tamil). They can explain codes and write scripts.
Largely trained on publicly available data, they can sometimes produce skewed or biased data if trained to do so raising concerns of social and political polarization.
Amazon claims dozens of books in its library are now authored or co-authored by Chatgpt and the AI tool even presided over a church sermon in Germany last June!
All said and done, Conversational Chatbots are here to stay and we need to maneuver our lives around these AIs for efficient living.
As with any lay user, I put these products to test on their intelligence as they claim and attest their respective companies. Google and now Microsoft allied OpenAI, are now on tracks to beat out the other.
I call it the ‘ability’ test. Run on 4 basic parameters of Simplicity, Impressionality, Reliability, and Relatability. Here’s a rundown on how they fair-
Simplicity
The first and foremost traction to an AI is inadvertently on how simple it is to use-
ChatGPT and Bard both require a log-in on any browser, which is hassle-free, unlike other AI chatbots like Bing which require you to download only on Edge.
Though both of them are primarily free for public use, ChatGPT features picture generation and model development programming, that require a certain amount of pay. An updated version called ChatGPT Plus (powered by GPT 3.5 and 4, or an interphase of the two) is probably more streamlined and available for professional use and requires payment.
Bard on the other hand, presently shows no such added technologies on offer.
The Internet is abuzz about the purportedly hurried release by Google around February 2023 without some basic features that ChatGPT offered on its maiden release, evidently to keep up the arms race!
This could potentially put off users as any new technology is expected to arrive with enhanced features than those that are already in existence, especially since Bard is projected as a rival competitor to ChatGPT!
On this parameter- ChatGPT is a win!
Impressionality
ChatGPT gives you the impression that it has more to it than what you just see in the interface. The log-in page of OpenAI shows us that the bot can also generate AI pictures and any other existing models can be plugged into Chat GPT to program it. Feedback to ChatGPT is another query-like function, typed out in the same place, unlike a specific window box usually seen on websites.
Google’s Bard gives us location information and looks like another page from its endless list of products. There is a strong ‘Googlishness’ about its icons and feedback options that look similar to the ones on social media sites. (The like and unlike buttons). But Bard doesn't have other feature options like picture generation.
Both the AI Chatbots come across as potentially law-abiding AIs. Google and Microsoft allied OpenAI are continuously working on improved programming so that the bots can potentially ignore deceitful data or tricks that may produce harmful or malicious content. However, Bard has frequent pop-ups on its interface page that address legal concerns, which gives us the impression that Bard is more concerned with being legally, culturally, and politically correct.
On this aspect- Google’s Bard seems to have more familiarity with User impressions and so Bard gains points here.
Reliability
This is what hits the cord on its very functionality! How reliable is the data on these Chatbots?
ChatGPTs accuracy is widely accepted as 85%, whereas Bard, novel to the former, can claim only half of it. However, ChatGPTs free subscription is limited to data as of 2021, while Bard is better updated and presently cites no such limitation.
Though both of them claim an individual personality for themselves when generating data. ChatGPT projects a more singular status. While Bard seems to reference its sources.
For Example, I asked ChatGPT if it knew who the acclaimed Pastor Russell was. It gave me relatively factual data without its sources. Take a look at its finish-
However, Bard provided similar data but mentioned its sources-
On this account, I would say that Bard wins for honesty!
Relatability
Information that AI Chatbots give us must be relatively factual. It should make the User relatable to the data it produces, even in the absence of information. The dearth of data must not hinder the AI's conversational or interactional ability.
As a follow-up, I continued a query along the same lines as my previous question. Did it know a person called Anton Frey who is closely associated with Pastor C T Russell?
This was ChatGPTs output-
“As of my last update in September 2021, there is limited information available about Anton Frey in connection with Pastor Charles Taze Russell. However, based on what is known about C.T. Russell, it is possible that Anton Frey might have been associated with him in the context of the Bible Student movement or the early history of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Charles Taze Russell was a prominent religious figure who founded the Bible Student movement in the late 19th century. He was also the first president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, which later became known as the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Bible Student movement was a group of individuals who sought to study the Bible independently and critically, separate from mainstream Christian denominations. Russell's teachings differed from traditional Christian beliefs in several aspects, and he gained a substantial following.
Anton Frey, as of my last update, was not a well-known figure in connection with Russell or the Jehovah's Witnesses movement. It is possible that he was a supporter, associate, or contemporary of Russell during his time as a prominent religious leader, but any specific details about his involvement would require further research beyond my current knowledge.
Please note that information might have emerged or changed since my last update. To get the most accurate and up-to-date information, I recommend consulting reliable sources or conducting further research on the specific topic of interest.”
However, Bard's response was more stoic-
“I do not have enough information about that person to help with your request. I am a large language model, and I am able to communicate and generate human-like text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions, but my knowledge about this person is limited. Is there anything else I can do to help you with this request?”
So you see, though ChatGPTs data is limited to 2021, it does try to give associated information which is relatively factual whereas Bard totally refuses to even try!
I could give ChatGPT full points for this. And an extra bonus. Hence, In the present scenario, ChatGPT is a better AI tool than Bard.
In fact, such technologies are never a finished product and will have continued fine-tuning and upgradation leading to the birth of other new technologies. At the end of the day, we all need that critical data for which these technologies are built to thoughtfully aid Human lives.
The Road Ahead for ChatGPT and Bard
The latest version GPT- 4 is already making inroads. It is more creative and less on inventing facts. On priority, John Schulman, the co-founder of OpenAI confirms that efforts are on to curb harmful or malicious content using a machine learning method called Jailbreaking or Adversarial training on the current version of GPT-4. This involves feeding adversarial content repeatedly to enable the model to ignore or reject them so as to provide correct and helpful data.
Google on the other hand is concentrating on expanding Bard globally and integrating various technologies and tools into its list of products and services.
Let's wait to see how AIs can amaze us still further!
Sylvia Jp
@SylviaJp-