Bard VS ChatGPT: Which bot is better?

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AI chatbots. Bard and ChatGPT. On the surface, they feel a bit like an undead Furby; a fad that is refusing to die out. 

But behind the scenes, serious efforts are being made to both enable and prevent AI’s integration into society.

Those singing their praises say AI will revolutionise work, streamlining tasks to cut out the menial and enable us to focus on the more complex. Although true, there are huge ethical questions. But that’s for another time.

I am here to tell you definitively; which chatbot is actually the most useful? I’m not talking about telling jokes here, I’m looking at serious ways in which each bot can help you. 

So, should you use Bard or ChatGPT?

Emails

Lets start with something really simple. And really boring. Noone likes emailing.

Even if you are the biggest AI atheist out there (and hey, I’m no believer myself), you could accept letting someone write and send menial emails for you.

As you can see, there’s quite a big difference here. Not only is the detail higher for ChatGPT, but the eloquence is exceptional. GPT’s response is in no way robotic or formulaic, which is always weird to me as AI is only ever following an, albeit complex, formula.

Bard on the other hand is the bare bones. Skeletal. It leave a lot of the embellishment up to you which some may say is a good thing. But even then, the sentences are so dull and read like they have zero empathy attached to their meaning.

This simple test lays bare a recurring theme between Bard and ChatGPT. The latter is trained on a much higher amount of input data. Basically, it has read more words combine din different ways, therefore it can write more authentic and detailed sentences. Bard feels a few years behind at least here.

Just through emailing, you can see how good ChatGPT is at nailing emotive language. It probably overdoes it in this email, sort of coming across like a desperate plea rather than a measured request, but it’s bloomin’ impressive.

SEO-Optimised Blog Titles

Now this one is a bit more interesting.

Rather than regurgitating some email we’ve all heard a thousand times, this task asks the chatbots to engage their creative sides.

I asked them both to suggest five SEO optimised titles for a blog post about Apple Vision Pro And yes, you can go and check, none of the articles about Vision Pro on MER have used AI.

On the surface, ChatGPT does a good job. The titles have related keywords in them beyond ‘Vision Pro’ like ‘visual technology’ that would help add authority and specificity in Google’s SERP trawling. 

You might also be thinking, ‘blimey, they’re a bit generic aren’t they’? And the answer is yes. Because, if you reverse search the titles, you will see they are basically complete copies of the top search results. Sometimes a mash-up of the top two.

This is kind of alright, most of SEO research is just copying what is already popular anyway. But in this sense, ChatGPT isn’t really any better than a human. In fact, it’s probably worse. As a human, you can use SEO keyword tools to make your own tailored list. ChatGPT doesn’t do that (yet), it’s just ctrl+c, ctrl+v.

Bard on the other hand takes a very surprising approach indeed. There’s no generalisations here, instead a laser focus on photography of all things. Not gaming or movies but photography.

This is actually a great thing SEO-wise. You have the main keyword combined with a few different unique ones that may help you stand out from the crowd. It’s also a bit of content inspiration. Far fewer people will be writing about Vision Pro and photography. The only drawback being, if you don’t know much about photography, you’re pretty stuffed.

Still, Bard even explains to you why the title’s it has suggested are SEO-optimised. And reverse searching reveals none are copies of other titles! Isn’t that good?!

I must say, it’s an unexpected win for Bard. Perhaps it taps into the Google Keyword Planner somehow? Whatever it does, I’m impressed.

Youtube Video Ideas

Similar to the above but a bit more specific.

YouTube titles are less concerned with SEO and more with with, let’s just admit it, clickbaity. In that sense, they are less formulaic and more creative. You’ve got to be able to write something relevant, eye-catching and appropriate for your audience. Getting that right largely determines how many views a video will get.

Hey, don’t hate the player, hate the game.

With that in mind, these suggestions are dull. So dull. So much so, I won’t eve show you Bard’s.

They’re very informative and work for a certain demographic. They also work if you are already an established channel such as Marques Brownlee. But, if you’re looking to catch an eye with something a little different, these titles offer little.

However, I asked for some more interesting, clickbaity revisions and I’m moderately impressed!

‘You’ll Never Believe What Apple Vision Pro Can Do!’ is perhaps the most generic piece of clickbait you’ll ever see. BUT, it is along the right lines. 

This one, ‘The Secret to Taking Amazing Photos with Apple Vision Pro’, is a much better suggestion. It has intrigue and specificity. Although, unless you’ve used Vision Pro, you won’t actually be able to make this video.

I think this one is basically a draw. ChatGPT’s revisions just used more adjectives and verbs in different combinations, but I’m not sure they actually work optimally as video titles. They’re a bit long and wordy. It also chatised me for even asking for clickbait! Bard’s are shorter and snappier but more generic. 

This one is a shoulder shrug.

Script Writing

My final boss. Something that could genuinely save a lot of time.

I can only apologise for the upcoming cringe.

The first time I asked for a short script, Bard spat out what sounded like straight marketing drivel for the Pixel Fold.

ChatGPT wass much better. Engaging, conversational, casual and still informative. It nails the assignment.

I then asked for revisions from both to make them more playful. ChatGPT obliged and again, did pretty well. Although, some cringe seeped in.

Fellow tech wizards. Sheez.

But Bard. Oh Bard. Well, see for yourself.

It sounds like I asked my Dad to parody the most annoying tech bro on Earth. No dear Bard, throwing in the word ‘lit’ or ‘fire’ does not count as good scriptwriting. Unless it was intentionally being sarcastic then I’ve been made to look very stupid.

This one is an obvious and very big win for ChatGPT.

Conclusion

Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT takes a 2-1 victory over Bard in the tasks I set them here.

The superior language model with a much larger breadth of source material triumphs in creative tasks, especially scriptwriting.

However, I think the main takeaway here is one of apathy. AI chatbots are touted as being there to replace menial tasks. To give humans more time to do the ‘fun’ stuff (which I don’t believe company execs will stop at for one second). But is that actually true?

I suppose keyword research is time consuming. And writing a script is a long process that often happens over days. 

But the thing about good SEO is making sure it is actually unique. You can get AI to write it for you but you can bet it’ll use the most generic keywords and wording imaginable. And if you want to sound like every other YouTuber ever, then sure, use an AI script. But you can forget about carving your own niche with a distinctive voice.

The answer then is ChatGPT is best and Bard has a lot of catching up to do in certain areas. However, the nature of how AI chatbots come into existence, through training on existing textual material, is their greatest downfall.

For now, at least, using chatbots means settling for mediocrity.