What puts Google Bard one step ahead of ChatGPT

If you’ve tried out ChatGPT, you probably noticed that, despite its awesomeness, it can’t browse the web or stay up-to-date. You can unlock internet access with a payment, but for folks just looking for a handy tool, shelling out money isn’t always practical. Once you bring money into the picture, it’s a tough sell to get people to pay for something they don’t really require.

When it comes to Google Bard, think of it more like a giant language wizard paired with a search engine rather than just a super chatty version of the entire internet.

Bard gives you the source of the information

So, when you throw a question at Bard, it usually spills the beans on where it dug up the answer. That’s a major advantage in research because not only does it help you grasp the info it found, but you can also hop over to the source link to double-check its accuracy. Language models often cook up stuff, like a bit of daydreaming, and that happens quite a bit. But having sources makes it a breeze to confirm if it’s just making things up or not.

Here’s a real-life scenario: My buddy was wrestling with a university assignment, trying to figure out if the question had been tossed around by others for some clarity. They were having a tough time tracking it down online. So, they fed it to Google Bard, asking where the question originated. Bam! It not only spat out the exact textbook but also dished out a step-by-step guide and a link to an online version of the book. Talk about hitting the jackpot!

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Bard takes image prompts as well

Unlike ChatGPT’s free version, Google Bard lets you toss an image, and it can actually respond to what’s in the picture. The catch is this cool feature is only available for paying users at the moment. OpenAI has promised to extend it to others down the road, but for now, you gotta shell out some bucks. It’s a bit of a specialized feature, but it comes in handy if you’ve got an image to deal with or need to swiftly extract text from it.

Bard is better at programming than ChatGPT

ChatGPT is handy for programming and does a decent job assisting when users hit a snag. It can troubleshoot too, but Google Bard takes things to a whole new level. Bard shines, especially for Python programming, in data analysis and graphing. With ChatGPT, folks often run into issues where even if you correct it, it stubbornly sticks to the wrong answer. But with Bard, users can straight-up say, “Hey, this is wrong; I need this,” and it actually gets the job done. Now, that’s impressive!

What’s even cooler is that Bard not only fetches the graph generation code from another site but also shows me the expected output. This is a game-changer when you need to swiftly visualize data you’ve gathered or tweak existing graphs. Well, GPT-4 in ChatGPT’s paid version is an improvement, but even with Bing Chat, Bard is superior for the kind of programming in many cases.

Bard can double as a search engine

People always said Google Bard is supposed to complement Google Search, not replace it. But why not? Bard is a kick-ass search engine because it can tap into the latest info and the vastness of the internet. If you’re on the hunt for a specific Reddit thread on some obscure topic, just throw the question at Bard, and bingo! Most of the time, it digs it up. You can even ask it to find other stuff online. So, why wouldn’t it be a replacement? It’s got the goods!

Just so we’re clear, Bard isn’t flawless for this kind of thing. Folks skilled at Google searches might still prefer doing it themselves manually. But hey, sometimes Bard is a gem when you just need to locate something in a jiffy. ChatGPT can’t pull off that trick at all since it’s cut off from the current internet scene.

Bard can export to Docs and Gmail

Google lets you straight-up export a result to Google Docs or draft it in Gmail. This is awesome for folks using Bard for proofreading or whipping up emails. I know some who rely on tools like ChatGPT for this stuff, but Bard scores extra points for seamlessly fitting into the Google ecosystem.

Sure, you can grab add-ons and plugins for ChatGPT to mimic this integration, but they’re not official, and sometimes they might even come with a price tag. On the flip side, Bard is free for all users, and you get features like this without spending a dime.

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GPT-4 might be better, but comes at a cost

If you’re checking out this post and wondering if GPT-4 outshines Google Bard, well, truth be told, it likely does! OpenAI has been in the AI game for ages and has a solid track record. But here’s the kicker – GPT-4 isn’t free; you’ll have to fork out around $20 a month for a GPT Plus account. On the other hand, Google Bard is absolutely free and up for grabs worldwide. So, if you’re not keen on dropping big bucks, Bard is a top-notch choice.

GPT-4 Turbo comes with a much larger context window compared to its older siblings. This is the stuff GPT-4 Turbo considers before firing off a response. Now, it’s flaunting an impressive 128,000-token context window (that’s the chunk of text or code that LLMs read). OpenAI spills the details in their blog post, painting a picture of having around 300 pages of text to play with.

Earlier, OpenAI spilled the beans that they’re unleashing these cool new features for ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise users in the next couple of weeks. If you’re itching for the voice feature, it’s available on iOS and Android, but you’ve got to opt in. As for the images feature, it’s in the cards for all ChatGPT platforms. OpenAI’s game plan is to share the love for images and voice features with more than just the paying users after the initial rollout.