Is Perplexity AI better than ChatGPT? [2024]

Is Perplexity AI better than ChatGPT? ChatGPT took the world by storm when it was released in November 2022, showcasing advanced conversational abilities and knowledge on a wide range of topics. Developed by OpenAI, Chat GPT produces human-like responses after “ingesting” vast amounts of data from books, articles, websites, and more.

In January 2023, a new AI chatbot named Perplexity AI was launched. Developed by the startup Anthropic, Perplexity AI aims to be an ethically-aligned alternative to Chat GPT. It makes a bold claim that it is “safer, more honest and consistent” than its rival.

So how exactly does Perplexity AI compare to the phenomenally popular ChatGPT? Let’s analyze them across key parameters:

Training Data and Methods

Chat GPT was trained on a varied dataset ranging from books, web pages, publications to even conversations. This exposure gave it an extensive general knowledge and conversational ability. However, the data sources were uncontrolled, often inaccurate or biased.

In contrast, Perplexity AI was fed carefully curated datasets like reliable encyclopedias, technical manuals and scientific publications. The information is high-quality and ethically sound. Perplexity AI avoids scraping sites like Reddit to prevent acquiring unwanted biases or toxic language.

Further, Perplexity AI uses a training technique called Constitutional AI to align its goals and values with helpfulness, honesty and harmlessness. The researchers claim this makes it much less prone to misbehavior or deception compared to ChatGPT.

Knowledge and Skills

ChatGPT’s extensive training, though flawed in parts, gives it very good knowledge on a vast variety of topics like history, literature, pop culture, basic sciences and more. It can maintain coherent and seemingly intelligent conversations on almost anything under the sun.

Perplexity AI shows remarkable knowledge and factual accuracy about math, science, law, coding and technical topics. But its understanding of arts, literature, contemporary culture or current affairs seems relatively weaker and limited.

For skills, ChatGPT can write stories, articles, songs, code and more based on prompts. Perplexity AI seems more adept at technical writing, analysis and math/coding skills so far. But creative writing seems outside its core strengths.

So while the depth versus breadth of knowledge is tilted towards ChatGPT; when it comes to accuracy and technical proficiency, Perplexity AI has an edge currently.

Conversational Ability

A key highlight of ChatGPT is its human-like conversational ability even extending to multiple turns. The chatbot remembers context, adapts its responses accordingly and exhibits a personality. This ability to “chat” like a human truly captures user imagination.

In comparison, Perplexity AI lacks the free-flowing conversational chops of ChatGPT currently. It gives quite to-the-point, concise and focused responses instead of rich, interlinked conversational replies. While it can answer follow-up questions and clarify doubts, the overall experience is more Q&A based rather than a ‘chat’.

So for engaging conversations that seem human, ChatGPT wins hands down. But Perplexity AI conveys information more precisely and accurately during question-answers currently, aligned to its honest assistant persona.

Ethics and Alignment

ChatGPT sometimes displays concerning biases, makes up blatantly incorrect answers or exhibits toxic behavior – which critics attribute to flaws in its training methodology involving uncontrolled data scraping.

In contrast, Perplexity AI uses Constitutional AI to formally align itself with human values. As a result, the chatbot refuses clearly unethical, dangerous or illegal requests. It calls out flaws in prompts if assumptions seem problematic. Overall, Perplexity AI appears to have much stronger ethical safeguards than ChatGPT currently.

For sensitive use-cases like healthcare, policymaking or education – Perplexity AI’s transparent, lawful and ethical stance makes it seem more reliable than the ‘black box’ nature of ChatGPT. However, the latter’s versatility cannot be discounted if the responses are validated.

Creativity

A key highlight of ChatGPT is its ability to generate highly creative output be it stories, poems, jokes or even painting ideas based on prompts. Despite issues, ChatGPT’s training methodology enables considerable creative flair.

However, creativity seems handicapped for Perplexity AI currently compared to its rival. As it focuses narrowly on technical/ factual domains, the originality and artistry in its outputs is quite limited. Its structured knowledge also inhibits the lateral thinking that creative tasks typically demand.

So for creative applications, ChatGPT is the platform of choice between the two for richer ideation. But Perplexity’s creativity may potentially develop further, as its training techniques and data continue to advance.

Speed

Both ChatGPT and Perplexity AI provide prompt responses under 5 seconds for simple queries and instructions. As queries become more complex like multi-step reasoning or creative writing, turnaround times go up.

Interestingly here Perplexity AI seems faster, with some complex queries answered under 15-20 seconds against the 30-60 seconds range for ChatGPT. Perplexity’s focused knowledge and training methodology could account for this. However, both are blazing fast compared to human typing or computation speeds.

So while both are quick ChatGPT slows relatively on tougher problems whereas Perplexity AI maintains speedy performance throughout.

Use Cases

ChatGPT’s versatile knowledge and language prowess make it suitable for a wide spectrum of uses like:

• Conversational chatbot for company websites
• Automated writing of stories, poems, speeches etc.
• Basic query answering across diverse domains
• College essay writing and enhancing
• Job candidate screening through interviews
• Code generation for simple programs
• Automated generation of SEO friendly articles
• Music composition by providing song metadata
• Automated replies for customer service bots
• Developing conversational bots, NPCs and game dialogue

Meanwhile, Perplexity AI’s reliability, precision and technical grounding make it more attractive for uses like:

• Math homework helper for students
• Programming aide for coding tasks
• Legal contract review and risk detection
• Patient health insight generation for medical professionals
• Technical writing automation for manuals and documentation
• Financial analysis and modeling for investments
• Bioinformatics analysis for genomic sequences
• Software debugging and code optimization
• Architectural design validation and flaw detection
• Cybersecurity enhancement for threat evaluation

So while ChatGPT spans both technical and creative use cases; Perplexity AI currently shines brighter for precision-demanding technical applications.

Accessibility

ChatGPT is freely accessible to all currently via OpenAI’s website, though pricing plans could get introduced later. Users simply need to sign-up to gain access.

Perplexity AI is available via a closed beta only on invite-basis as of now. It remains restricted only to select researchers and partners, unavailable to the wider public. Over time though increased accessibility is likely.

So ChatGPT clearly leads in terms of accessibility and user experience, with an intuitive chat interface. Comparatively, getting on to Perplexity AI itself poses a barrier currently unless specifically invited.

Innovation and Future Potential

Both ChatGPT and Perplexity AI have shown the transformative potential of AI, disrupting several spaces already. But which platform promises greater future innovation?

ChatGPT with its strong language foundations, flexibility and versatile knowledge seems to offer unlimited possibilities for creative expansion across diverse domains. Its stunning quality considering current limitations also point to exponentially greater applications down the line.

However, Perplexity AI’s Constitutional AI approach indicates a strongly progressive technology stack too. As its precision and alignment capabilities advance further, Perplexity AI could hugely impact specialized industries like healthcare, law, finance etc. with trustworthy AI assistants.

Overall, ChatGPT’s versatility keeps doors open for enlarging its scope over time across sectors. Perplexity AI seems more suited to revolutionize how reliable, advanced AI can enable and elevate technical decision-making across critical workflows.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both ChatGPT and Perplexity AI showcase trailblazing innovations in conversational AI – but with different philosophies and strengths currently.

ChatGPT wows with its human-like language and knowledge prowess spanning diverse topics. Its advanced pre-training methodology, though risky, enables creative applications too. Future potential therefore seems limitless, contingent upon improving safety.

In contrast, Perplexity AI adopts a narrow but steady approach – showcasing superior alignment, precision and factual reliability for technical domains instead of creativity. Constitutional AI principles bakes ethics into its core, enabling reliable utilization for sensitive applications.

Exciting times lie ahead as these two philosophies help advance AI’s role across digital ecosystems! Going forward, an ideal scenario could be the amalgamation of both versatile knowledge and steadfast alignment.

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