Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, powered by the GPT-4 model, are among the leading AI solutions on the market today. Both can understand and interact with text, images, videos, audio, and code, producing varied outputs. They also offer specialized knowledge that would be expensive to replicate with expert human assistance.
If you're considering which AI tool to invest your time and effort in mastering, it's crucial to choose wisely. So, which AI solution is superior? Gemini or GPT-4?
Availability and Pricing
Gemini is offered in Pro and Nano versions, while the Ultra model will be released in the future. Currently, both GPT-4 and Google Gemini are accessible. Gemini Pro has been available for free via Bard since December 6, 2023, requiring only a Google account. In contrast, GPT-4 is available through the ChatGPT tool with a GPT-Plus subscription priced at $20 per month.
You can also access GPT-3.5 (and occasionally GPT-4) through Microsoft’s Bing Chat. Some tools offer limited free access to GPT-4, but the primary platform remains ChatGPT. Notably, while Gemini Pro is effective, it is not the final version; Google has promised the Gemini Ultra will be the most advanced of its AI options. Additionally, Gemini Nano, which runs locally on certain smartphones, provides a limited feature set primarily for text summarization and proofreading.
Functionality
The primary features of Gemini and GPT-4 are quite similar. Both can interpret and engage with text, images, videos, audio, and code, making them suitable for various tasks. Users can hold general conversations, ask questions, identify recipes based on cupboard contents, analyze crowd scenes in videos, or receive optimization suggestions for their code.
Both AIs also support additional extensions, though currently, Google’s options are more restricted. Gemini integrates with Google Flights, Hotels, Maps, YouTube, and Workspace applications, allowing users to interact with documents and access live data. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s GPT-4 boasts a broader selection of plugins and extensions, many created by third-party developers. These plugins enhance capabilities for shopping, advanced calculations, integration with numerous apps, and even table bookings at restaurants.
Customization is another area where GPT-4 excels. It allows users to create tailored versions of the AI for specific tasks, reducing the need to repeat instructions in future chats. Gemini, while enabling new chat launches, currently lacks customization options. Furthermore, GPT-4 includes DALL-E 3 for generating images on demand; while Gemini is intended to have similar capabilities, it cannot yet perform this task. If you subscribe to GPT-Plus, you won’t need a separate image-generation subscription.
Response Speed
Gemini demonstrates a clear advantage in response time. While GPT-4 can experience slowdowns or interruptions during peak usage, making it occasionally unresponsive, Gemini provides rapid replies. Both tools allow users to fact-check information: GPT-4 cites sources for its claims, while Gemini offers a button for conducting Google searches to verify information personally.
Conclusion: Which AI is Better, Gemini or GPT-4?
Upon launching Gemini, Google claimed that its Pro model outperformed GPT-4 in several AI applications and benchmarks, including reasoning skills. However, assessing their capabilities in real-world scenarios reveals that both AIs deliver impressive responses to identical prompts across text, visual, video, and coding tasks.
In my experience with both AIs for game coding inquiries, each serves well as a conversational chatbot. Gemini appears cautious about discussing or identifying certain individuals' images; it failed to recognize a celebrity's outfit and couldn't provide personal insights. Conversely, GPT-4 demonstrated no such hesitancy.
Although Gemini allows fact-checking through Google, it did not utilize the search engine to gather information about me, as GPT-4 effectively did with Bing. Overall, GPT-4 appears to have an edge at this time. Its robust toolset, extensive plugin options, and customizable chatbots provide a more comprehensive experience. While Gemini displays comparable raw capabilities and rapid response times, it currently lacks the same depth of features. With the promise of Gemini Ultra ahead, we will need to observe its integration into Google's AI offerings before drawing further comparisons.