In the realm of AI, ChatGPT is often hailed as the king of generative AI chatbots (as of now).
Released in November 2022 by OpenAI, this groundbreaking large language model (LLM) – a very large deep learning model pre-trained on vast amounts of data – quickly became a go-to for many people, including students and office workers.
While office workers use ChatGPT to generate meeting summaries or proposals, students have been taking a more creative approach to using ChatGPT in their studies.
From “summarise Stalin’s rise to power as if you’re explaining it to a five year old” to “summarise the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the voice of Rupaul using as much gay slang as possible”, students have shared funny ways they utilise ChatGPT.
Soon after ChatGPT’s release, Google unveiled Gemini (previously known as Bard), designed to go head-to-head with OpenAI’s model.
Gemini VS ChatGPT
Unlike ChatGPT (the free version), Gemini is able to generate images. Moreover, the latter also allows you to upload images or speak instead of typing.
To test this out, I uploaded an image of the Taj Mahal and verbally asked Gemini to “tell me about the image below”. Gemini not only told me it was the Taj Mahal, but also where it’s located and some of its history, even citing its sources too!
You can even upload an image you want to post on social media and ask Gemini to generate a caption for it.
Although Gemini has more capabilities, it is notably slower. While ChatGPT answers you almost immediately, Gemini takes a couple more seconds to respond. This isn’t a big deal, but if you’re going to use Gemini often, it might become slightly annoying.
ChatGPT earned its popularity due to its ability to hold engaging conversations. In a way, you could say ChatGPT is more “human-like” as it has an uncanny ability to mimic human writing styles. It excels in creative text generation and can even write poems or scripts.
In contrast, Gemini shines in the area of factual accuracy and information retrieval.
While the launch version of ChatGPT was confined to the knowledge it was fed during their training, Gemini had access to the internet from day one due to its integration with Google’s search technology.
Since Gemini can access and process real-time information from the web, it is superior when it comes to answering questions about current events or needing the most up-to-date information.
While both ChatGPT and Gemini are optimised for English, they are capable of understanding and responding in different languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Gemini is now available on mobile via the Gemini app on Android or in the Google app on iOS. For now, this feature is limited to the U.S. but will be available in more locations soon.
Android users will be able to access Gemini from the app or anywhere else you normally activate Google Assistant — hitting the power button or corner swiping on select phones, or saying “Hey Google.”
Those who use iOS will be able to access Gemini by tapping the Gemini toggle in the Google app.
But wait, everyone is going gaga recently because…
Just a week ago, Google launched Gemini Advanced, which gives you access to Google’s most capable AI model, Ultra 1.0. This model is only available in English.
Building on the fundamentals of Gemini, Gemini Advanced is better at highly complex tasks like coding, logical reasoning, following nuanced instructions, and creative collaboration.
Gemini Advanced is only available as part of the tech giant’s brand new Google One AI Premium Plan for S$28.99/month, starting with a two-month trial at no cost.
AI Premium subscribers will have access to 2TB of storage and will soon be able to use Gemini Advanced in Gmail, Docs, Slides, and Sheets.
Since Gemini Advanced is a step above Gemini, it excels at providing more comprehensive, factually rich responses in a clear, helpful format. On the other hand, Gemini’s responses are slightly shorter.
So how did it fare?
When asked to describe today’s weather, Gemini embedded a weather forecast from weather.com.
Gemini Advanced first asked for my location before elaborating on today’s temperature, humidity, cloud cover, thunderstorms, and hourly breakdown. Additionally, Gemini Advanced also listed things to keep in mind such as staying hydration and staying in shade, and also linked its sources.
Like your naggy grandmother.
As of now, the app for Gemini Advanced is not available in Singapore yet, so you can only use it on your desktop (or on your web browser).