ChatGPT Emerges as the AI Chatbot Race Heats Up
OpenAI’s AI chatbot, ChatGPT, has garnered significant attention since its public launch just two months ago. With its remarkable ability to write songs, complete homework assignments, generate copy, speeches, and program code, ChatGPT has proven itself as a game-changer in the world of AI chatbots.
The implications of this technology have been widely discussed, with concerns raised about potential job losses and the impact on education. Students now have the ability to effortlessly complete coursework and even write university applications, thanks to the speedy and accurate responses of ChatGPT and its competitors.
However, despite the impressive capabilities of this technology, it is important to note that it is still in its early stages. ChatGPT is limited to text-based responses sourced from the internet as of 2021, and it does not possess the ability to update itself. Moreover, its answers are presented as facts, even though the internet is teeming with misinformation.
In an attempt to test ChatGPT’s journalistic skills, the BBC asked the chatbot to write an article for their website. Although it produced copy quickly, the journalist assigned to the task found the process time-consuming. He had to repeatedly prompt and request revisions from ChatGPT to achieve a satisfactory result. Ultimately, the article fell short of the BBC’s quality standards and was not published.
Despite its limitations, the creators of ChatGPT have set their sights on a far more ambitious target—the multi-billion dollar internet search sector. It is no wonder that ChatGPT has been dubbed the Google killer. In 2020, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, raked in an astounding $104 billion in revenue from search alone. Even a minuscule share of this market would be a significant triumph. In a likely bid to challenge Google’s dominance, Microsoft recently announced a multi-billion dollar partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
Rumors about a ChatGPT-powered version of Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, have been surfacing all over the internet. Imagine a search engine that provides a single definitive answer, eliminating the need to sift through countless pages of links and advertisements. While Microsoft has remained tight-lipped about its plans, an announcement is expected in the coming week.
In response to the speculation surrounding Microsoft and ChatGPT, Google has unveiled its own AI chatbot called Bard. Built on Google’s language learning model, Lamda, Bard’s responses closely resemble human-like interactions. The tech giant has also invested $300 million in Anthropic, a company developing a rival to ChatGPT.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, introduced its own AI chatbot, Blenderbot, in the US last summer. In China, Baidu, the tech giant, has announced that an advanced version of its chatbot, Ernie, will be launched in March 2023.
The emergence of these powerful AI chatbots sets the stage for a potential battle between industry giants. When asked which chatbot was superior, ChatGPT diplomatically responded that it is not a matter of one being better than the other and that it has no intention of harming any company, including Google.
With significant investments pouring into the field of AI chatbots, the landscape is primed for competition. While ChatGPT may need to adopt a more assertive stance, the ultimate aim for its creators remains the vast internet search market.
As the race for AI chatbot supremacy unfolds, one thing is certain—these advanced chatbots are revolutionizing the way we interact with technology and explore the vast realm of information available to us.
