ChatGPT vs. Perplexity.ai? No — ChatGPT AND Perplexity.ai
- rlevysarfin
- Feb 11, 2024
- 5 min read
When you think of generative AI tools, what’s the first name that comes to mind? It’s most likely ChatGPT, and for good reason — it’s one of the most popular applications out there. Within the first five days of launching, the generative AI application acquired one million users. As of January 1st, 2024, ChatGPT had over 100 million weekly active users. Over 90% of Fortune 500 companies use ChatGPT, and forecasters believe the application will generate $1 billion in revenue this year.
There are some serious contenders for ChatGPT’s crown, though, one of which is Perplexity.ai. Perplexity.ai was launched in August 2022. It’s a chatbot based on ChatGPT 3 and 4. Perplexity.ai acts as a search engine, and one of its biggest advantages is that it cites and displays its sources (something ChatGPT doesn’t automatically do unless you ask it to).
When I first heard about Perplexity.ai, I was excited. I’ve been using ChatGPT since the spring of 2023, and one of the things that bothers me is that it doesn’t automatically cite sources. I thought that maybe I could replace ChatGPT with Perplexity.ai as my go-to generative AI tool of choice. I was wrong, and here’s why.
A Note on My Generative AI Tool Selection
Out of all the generative AI tools out there, I only use two of them. As a writer, I rely on generative AI tools that help me research and that spur my writing, such as tools that help me come up with article titles.
That’s why this article will focus on ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai: I use them in my day-to-day work. I don’t use tools for coding, graphic design, or any other function, because those tools aren’t relevant to my job. I also only use ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai on a desktop, so I won’t be talking about the mobile experience for either application.
ChatGPT: A Primer
The “GPT” in ChatGPT stands for “generative pretrained transformer.” That means it’s a large language model (LLM) utilizing deep learning. LLMs use huge data sets to generate human-sounding speech. A GPT relies on transformer architecture to understand language and produce it in a way that sounds human.
The generative AI application made its public debut in November 2022. Four months later, OpenAI released the paid version of ChatGPT. ChatGPT 4, the paid version, offers greater functionality than the free version. However, for the purposes of this article, I’m going to focus on ChatGPT 3, because that’s the version I and many others use.
Perplexity.ai: A Primer
Like ChatGPT, Perplexity.ai is powered by LLMs. The founders of Perplexity.ai aimed to enhance the search experience.
The search engine has evolved: you no longer type in a question and receive pages of results. Google has refined its process to show a specific answer through snippets. However, Perplexity.ai’s founders wanted to go further. Their answer engine can answer more complex questions, synthesizing answers from multiple webpages.
Like ChatGPT, Perplexity.ai has a free version and a paid version. The paid version is a copilot — think of it as an AI-powered assistant. I use the free version, and that’s the one I’ll be talking about in this article.
Which Generative AI Tool Is Better: ChatGPT or Perplexity.ai?
The question above isn’t the one you should be asking.
I will freely and openly admit that’s the question I initially came up with. When I heard about Perplexity.ai, I thought I could use it to replace ChatGPT entirely (I went so far as to close the browser tab with ChatGPT in it, convinced I’d never need to open it again).
Here’s why looking at ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai as a binary and adversarial isn’t useful: the two generative AI tools perform distinct functions.
Perplexity.ai is, as one of its founders Aravind Srinivas calls it, an answer engine. It excels at search because that’s what it’s designed to do. It can’t perform the tasks ChatGPT can.
ChatGPT’s strengths lie in its ability to synthesize and analyze information, then create something new (that’s the “generative” part of generative AI). You can ask ChatGPT to write you an essay, help you create code, come up with titles for articles — the list goes on. What the free version of ChatGPT doesn’t do well is search. ChatGPT 3 can only crawl internet search results up until 2021, and it doesn’t automatically provide sources unless asked.
When to Use Which Tool
Instead of thinking about which tool is better, consider this question: when should I use one tool over the other?
Perplexity.ai is the tool to use when you’re searching for information. Thus far, I’ve been very satisfied with the search results. Ninety percent of the time, they’ve matched my search intent (that is to say, the search results answer the question I’m asking). Once in a while, Perplexity.ai will provide answers that don’t effectively respond to the question I’ve asked. Because Perplexity.ai supplies sources, I don’t feel the need to validate its findings with human subject matter experts.
ChatGPT is the tool to use when you’re looking to generate an end product, be that code, a story prompt, or titles. As a writer, I’ve used it to come up with title ideas for articles. That being said, I have yet to use a title idea, because the ideas ChatGPT has come up with miss the mark. If you do use ChatGPT for search, validate results with human subject matter experts. ChatGPT can hallucinate, meaning that it makes up information. Also, be careful when using ChatGPT-generated content; it could create copyright issues for you.
One Ring to Rule Them All? Not Yet
I asked Perplexity.ai if we’ll ever see a single generative AI tool with all the functionalities of the tools currently on the market. Here’s what it said:
The rapid development of generative AI tools has led to a diverse landscape of platforms and models, each excelling in specific functionalities. While it’s challenging to predict the future definitively, it’s plausible that a single AI tool could encompass many functionalities of existing generative AI tools… As the field progresses, it’s conceivable that future advancements may lead to more comprehensive and versatile generative AI tools that integrate multiple functionalities. The potential for such integration is supported by the significant growth and investment in the generative AI market, with the technology poised to have a substantial impact on various industries [9]. Therefore, while no single AI tool currently encompasses all functionalities, the evolving nature of generative AI suggests that such comprehensive tools could emerge in the future.
Citation:
In short, we’re not at the stage where there’s one go-to generative AI tool. We’re still going to use ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai, not one or the other.
What are your favorite generative AI tools and why? Let me know in the comments.
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