After spending some time interviewing Chat GPT I was reassured that the positives outweigh the negatives. And yes, ChatGPT provides real opportunities for talented, hard-working, creative individuals to do even better work. But what about its biggest rival, Google Bard AI?
Since ChatGPT launched back in early 2023 there have been plenty of developments in one of the fastest-moving technologies ever. There have been a few competitors pop up – most notably Google’s AI called Bard.
Google launched Bard in March 2023 sparking a tech war to put Apple vs Microsoft and Betamax vs VHS in the shade! So, what are the advantages of Bard? I took a look at Google’s AI from my perspective as an entrepreneur and came up with this – a Magnificent Seven Things that Bard Does Better.
1. Google Bard AI Works in Real Time
Bard and ChatGPT both give you remarkably full and even complex answers to the questions you ask them. They can respond in lots of different ways, including styles and even mimic popular styles and writers.
But they are different in how they’ve been built, and how they get the info you need, and learn.
ChatGPT relies on data from Wikipedia, books, articles, documents, and open internet content. However, the most recent information it can access only reaches up until 2021 – meaning it is yet to catch up with the latest news, events and research developments.
Bard uses something called Infiniset – a massive dataset more focused on dialogues and conversations than just facts. Bard can also search the web in real-time, giving you relevant and up-to-date answers. Basically, it adds all those powerful internet search functions Google is known for.
ChatGPT still uses a dataset that only goes up to September 2021.
Bard gives you up-to-date information you can use with complete confidence. It also often hands you a link to the source so you can check things out yourself.
2. Bard Has Really Smart Ways to Input Questions
Because ChatGPT and Bard basically require a similar question to trigger their responses, the way you ask questions of both AI systems is also quite similar. It takes quite a bit of skill and thought to pitch the questions just right.
So, both Bard and ChatGPT need the right information input so you can get the info that you need. They don’t read minds (yet!). So, you will need to think carefully to formulate a question in the right way, make sure it is not ambiguous or confusing, and possibly try a few different versions to see what difference it makes.
But one of the big differences with Bard is that you can input images as search terms. Using the power of Google Lens, Bard will write captions, add descriptions and provide other info, all in a matter of seconds.
It also allows you to use voice to ask questions – a bit like Alexa – cutting down on time and making it quick and easy to try lots of variations.
3. Bard Lets You Edit Your Input on the Fly
Bard lets you change your question after you see the first response, so you can refine your answer, and add some fine details to get you a more precise result.
All you need to do is click the pencil icon, change what you initially wrote, and hit Update for a different – sometimes better – response.
This means it is really quick to get what you need, figure out better ways to use Bard, and tweak your inputs for better results as you go.
4. Bard Gives You More!
Bard is more than generous with its responses. Not only do you get more than one single output – simply click the ‘View other drafts’ tab – and you get slight variations on the answer – maybe just presented differently, different perspectives.
But Bard doesn’t stop there. It will give you handy visual information too, selecting the perfect images to illustrate and inform, add depth to your answers and save you heaps of time when putting any kind of document together for whatever purpose you have in mind.
Also, and this is key if you are operating in different parts of the world, Bard gives you local info. Getting up-to-date info is one thing, but as of June, Bard can give you info that’s relevant to your precise location. There’s no point getting the latest news on Bitcoin legislation in Paraguay if you are in Dubai! All you need to do is click the ‘Bard is more relevant with location’ prompt and Bard can use your location. It’s not too different from how Google Search works.
5. Bard Does Technical Stuff, Really Well
Google Bard AI was created with a host of quite technical functions in mind from the start. And since it launched people have been using it for technical stuff like code generation, debugging and code explanation – and it can do this in more than 20 programming languages including C++, Go, Java, Javascript, Python and Typescript – it can even help you to write functions for Google Sheets.
To be honest this one is not for me – and unless you do a lot of coding it might not be much use. But it does claim to be able to explain code – such as algorithms – in plain English. This comes in handy when working with people who do this stuff every day!
Bard also works with hundreds of plug-ins like Spotify and Amazon, so it is fully connected to the apps you probably already use.
6. Bard Compares Articles and Documents
One of Google Bard’s cleverest tricks is being able to analyze and absorb the text in web articles (perhaps it comes from all those years of Google crawling the web). This can come in handy in a variety of scenarios, including when you need to get summaries of lengthy articles or simplify complex topics.
You can use this feature to get Bard to compare two news reports or product reviews, quickly summarise the differences in perspective and tone, tell you which details are in one that isn’t in the other, and more.
7. Google Bard AI is free
OK, ChatGPT is free too, but if you want to a full-service you will need to pay $20 a month. Bard – although still called an ‘experiment’ on the website, is free for the full-fat version. For now. I expect it’ll become a paid service someday, but right now they are happy for you to have a play. It also means you can use it as a free alternative – even if you already use ChatGPT you can dip into Bard anytime for comparison.
In Conclusion
ChatGPT, Bard and all other AI systems are undergoing massive, super-fast development. That is what they do. They are designed to learn, develop themselves and respond to our needs as we use them. So don’t stick with one, keep your options open, try new stuff and work out which works for you today.
The global conversation around A.I continues to spread across all industries, here’s my take on it
