The Battle for AI Chatbot Supremacy: Bing Chat vs. ChatGPT vs. BARD
Bing Chat, ChatGPT, and BARD are some of the latest chatbots making headlines in the world of artificial intelligence. While these AI-powered chatbots share similarities, each of them has unique features that set them apart from the rest. Also, the purpose behind each of them isn’t the same.
ChatGPT was developed with the best intentions as far as I know. The ultimate vision for ChatGPT was to create an AI system that can assist people in a wide range of tasks, from answering customer service inquiries to providing support for individuals with disabilities. But of course, the more businesses-minded Microsoft and Google have their visions. Trust me, no matter what they say their vision is, they are in the race for relevance and dominance.
Despite the hype around ChatGPT, Bing Chat is the real competition for BARD. Bing Chat has taken GPT to a whole new level, and its capabilities are unmatched by ChatGPT. The competition between Bing Chat and BARD is further intensified by their real-time access to the internet, a feature that ChatGPT lacks. However, unlike ChatGPT, both Bing Chat and BARD are entirely free and do not offer any paid versions.
Don’t get me wrong. Creatives and professionals would always want to use ChatGPT above BARD and Bing Chat but when you bring it down to common usages, like a young woman who is jogging very early in the morning wanting to get information on the weather or a young man who wants to impress his new date with some kitchen skills wanting to look up the best recipe for making Chinese rice, these refined AI chatbots comes in handy.
It’s not that ChatGPT can’t get all those common everyday tasks done but Microsoft and BARD are both trying to integrate the AI chat functions into its ecosystem and across different apps. Even voice-to-text inputs can be used to make a request to the AI and text-to-voice output could also be used to get a response. It all starts boiling down to what people are familiar with. Every day, people keep asking me “What is the name of the ChatGPT app? Can’t find it on Playstore”.
Bing Chat also stands out for its advanced image-generating capabilities. Unlike OpenAI’s DALL.E 2 image generator, which has many limitations unless users buy credits, Bing Image Creator which uses the same engine provides users with up to 100 credits that refresh every day to generate even better images. It is also user-friendly and literally fun to use. For me, Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI is gradually helping them save their face.
The fierce competition between Bing and Google is not surprising, given that it involves two heavyweight tech giants, Microsoft and Google. Microsoft is determined to disrupt Google’s dominance in the search engine market, which was also the reason they created Edge using Google’s open-source chromium.
To achieve this goal, they are investing billions of dollars in building a powerful AI tool out of GPT and other OpenAI technology. In contrast, Google is fighting to protect its brand and products from competitors like Microsoft. To be fair, Microsoft is the only threat. They pay millions of dollars to companies such as Samsung, Apple, and Mozilla Firefox to use their search engine as the default. In 2020 for example, Google paid Apple between $8–$12 billion. Mozilla earns up to $450 Million.
The integration of Bing Chat with Samsung Galaxy devices’ SwiftKey keyboard is a significant development that may hurt Google’s search engine’s dominance. However, Google is not giving up without a fight. They have responded with BARD, which has shown some potential, and experts predict that Microsoft will continue to upgrade Bing Chat in response. While BARD seems to excel in certain things, ChatGPT has remained versatile and the success of Bing Chat is tied somehow to powering ChatGPT.
Despite their differences, Microsoft and Google are both investing heavily in AI. Microsoft’s commitment is evident in their creation of Bing Chat, SwiftKey, and Edge, among other products. While they may not receive the best reception from critics, they are still considered one of the best. On the other hand, Google’s dedication to AI is reflected in BARD, which is designed to protect its brand and products from the disruptive GPT that Microsoft is heavily invested in.
While you would need to pay some money to get access to ChatGPT Plus, Bing Chat and BARD are free at all levels. I believe that they are free simply because the war is still on. The “free launch in Freetown” may not last forever. However, while the war lasts, we the users can continue to benefit from the spoils.
In summary, Bing Chat, ChatGPT, and BARD are all powerful AI chatbots that offer unique features. While Bing Chat and BARD compete for dominance, ChatGPT remains the real hero. However, the fact remains that Microsoft and Google are both committed to investing in AI, and their rivalry will continue to produce innovative AI tools. But for an average human today, at least outside the “wall garden of China”, the “anti-innovation” barriers of North Korea and other places like Syria, Iran and Cuba, ChatGPT is AI and AI is ChatGPT. I didn’t say so, they think so.
