Google vs OpenAI: 10 things Bard can do that ChatGPT can't

Google unveiled its AI chatbot Bard in March as a rival to ChatGPT, which has been making remarkable progress in responding to prompts in natural language with highly comprehensive human-like answers. Bard has piqued the interest of many tech enthusiasts ever since its launch. And comparisons with ChatGPT are inevitable.

On May 10, at the developers’ conference, Google opened Bard to the world and introduced a slew of upgrades to ensure that it stays ahead of the curve. Bard is free and can be accessed from – https://bard.google.com/

Now that we have access to Bard and ChatGPT, here’s a look at how Google’s chatbot is getting better and about to overshadow OpenAI’s creation.

Bard and the power of the Internet

ChatGPT, by default, does not come with access to the internet. To use the internet, one might need to have access to the web-browsing feature. On the contrary, Google Bard comes with Internet access giving it an edge over its OpenAI counterpart. Bard is trained on a massive dataset of text and code that also includes information from the internet. This allows the chatbot to answer questions in a comprehensive and informative manner. It can give you the top news of the hour and also fetch information from the Internet.

We tried asking Bard to show the top news of the day. Although it gave a list of top developments, some of the news items were far from accurate. It needs to be noted that Bard is still in an experimental phase. The chatbot comes with a caveat, “ Bard may display inaccurate or offensive information that doesn’t represent Google’s views,” right under the text input box.

Bard will be available on your smartphone

Perhaps, the biggest disadvantage of ChatGPT could be accessibility as it does not have a mobile version, at least not yet. Although several users have been using ChatGPT via browsers on their smartphones, a dedicated application comes with the best of convenience. While Google Bard is not coming to your smartphone, the search giant has plans to integrate the chatbot into more Google apps and services, which make them accessible to smartphone users.

Images as response

While ChatGPT is efficient at generating highly comprehensive text responses, it falls short when it comes to delivering images in response. This could also be because OpenAI has other properties such as Dall-E that are capable of generating images. However, Google Bard is capable of providing images in its text response. Although Google showed this capability during the demo at the I/O event, when we used prompts such as ‘best places to visit in Kerala’, it did not show any images in response. Perhaps, the feature is being rolled out gradually.

Bard comes with a host of plugins

Google has announced that Bard will feature an array of plugins such as Walmart, Spotify, Uber Eats, Adobe Firefly, and a host of other Google Apps. It is to be noted that in March this year, OpenAI introduced similar plugins for ChatGPT. The only distinction here is that plugins on ChatGPT are only accessible to those having a subscription to ChatGPT Plus, a premium service that costs $20 a month.

Prompt using images

This is perhaps the most standout feature of Bard. Users will be able to use images as prompts or even scan images via Google Lens to do the same. For instance, a user who is stuck with craft materials and does not know how to use them can simply click a picture and ask Bard what to do. The chatbot will instantly come up with craft ideas. This is clearly a step forward in enhancing prompts on AI chatbots.

Voice prompts

ChatGPT is far away from image and voice prompts, but Google’s Bard seems to be offering these to its users. Using voice to give prompts can be a convenient way to get responses while multitasking. This could be the first time that voice is being used as a prompt on an AI chatbot, clearly overtaking the peers.

Export results to Gmail and Docs

This feature will prove to be an effective way to share results from Google Bard with friends and coworkers. Under every response, users will be able to see the like, dislike, and share buttons. The share button will have the options Export To Docs and Drafts in Gmail. With these export functions, composing emails would be hassle-free. Although ChatGPT comes with a host of extensions for similar features, Bard comes with export functionality by default.

Enhance search

Google Bard allows greater control to users when it comes to validating the information they are seeking. With every response along with the like, dislike, and share, users also get an option to Google Search their prompts. One simply needs to click on the Google icon and it will open a Search Related Topics  box with relevant search terms. Clicking on the topics will lead you to another page that will show search results in the usual way. As of now, ChatGPT has no such mechanism to get live search results.

The power of Gmail

One of the biggest advantages of Google Bard could be that it will be integrated with Gmail. The email service is currently being used by over 2 billion people and having access to an AI chatbot in the mail will redefine email interactions. This feature could come in handy for professional interactions. Be it writing a proposal or sending an invite, Google Bard can readily draft it in Gmail.

Bard for coding

When it comes to programming, Bard overshadows ChatGPT with its support for over 20 programming languages. The languages include C++, Python, Java, TypeScript, JavaScript, etc. According to Google, Bard will be able to help professionals with code generation, explanation, and debugging. This is something that ChatGPT is yet to ace. OpenAI’s Codex may be more suited to that purpose.

It is the age of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots. Microsoft, Google, and Meta have been scrambling to offer the most innovative and powerful versions of their AI chatbot. While this race was triggered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT which took the world by storm when it was launched in September 2022, now it seems Google is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that it is offering the most advanced AI chatbot.