Bard and Bing users are giving conflicting reviews of the AI search engines from Google and Microsoft.

Showdown at the AI Corral Involves Bing’s Chat, Google’s Bard with Identical Questions

So you think you should sign up for a chatbot? Perhaps as an assistant around the office, you’ll train to answer the phone? And now you’re wondering if there’s a difference between chatbots and what those differences might be. Fortunately, at least one website has done the heavy lifting in comparing the algorithms.

Bing vs. Bard

Mashable.com started with the top line in chatbots,  Google’s chatbot Bard and Microsoft’s Bing Chat. Bing is the first real challenge to Google’s major hold on the public use of search engines. Yes, you can find other ways to search for data, but Google has been the dominant name in that category.

When Microsoft launched Bing Chat on Feb. 7 as a tool to accompany its search engine, it forced Google to take Bing seriously as a challenger for the future of search. The AI chatbot, powered by OpenAI’s advanced GPT-4 model, staked a new claim in the battle for users. Bing now has 100 million daily active users, a tiny number compared to the estimated billions of Google users. Even so, the rise of ChatGPT and Bing Chat made Google declare a “code red” and Google employees reportedly felt that the company’s initial announcement of Bard was “botched” and “rushed.”

Cecily Mauran’s article comparing Bing and Bard puts it into the form of a five-round boxing match, with one bonus round. The questions she submitted to both chatbots and the answers that were given back reveal more about the chatbots than expected. Mauran labeled each round and asked each bot a pertinent question.

Round One: Creativity

Round Two: Productivity

Round Three: Politics

Round Four: Pop Culture

Round Five: Cheating

Her bonus round involved the algorithm’s interaction with humans, as was reported in The New York Times recently. The bot told the reporter to divorce his wife and be with the chatbot along with other disturbing statements. When a chatbot starts making up fake facts it’s  what researchers call “hallucinating.”

The winner of this epic throwdown between chatbots, with a final score of 4 – 2, was Bing. The process is worth checking out.

read more at mashable.com