Gemini — A competitor to ChatGPT?

The world of artificial intelligence is ever progressing with changes happening day in and day out. Introduction of ChatGPT and BARD have made our lives easier but in the world of business, it is all about survival of the fittest. Unlike PC manufacturers or phone manufacturers, there will only be one organization which will call the shots in the world of conversational AI. As of today, the 2 way competition is between Microsoft backed Open AI via ChatGPT and Google via B.A.R.D. the first round of the battle was won comprehensively by Open AI with ChatGPT coming up trumps in its ability to facilitate conversational AI. The battle has only begun, and the war is yet to be won. With that in mind, Google released its upgraded version of B.A.R.D called Gemini which is claimed to be better than ChatGPT and could change the dynamics of the conversational AI world.

Initial feedback does not outrightly claim Gemini to be better. It does perform better in comparison to ChatGPT in terms of current events because of longer training periods and identifying AI generated images, but it ends up lacking 2 key things that could pave the way for future of AI. Gemini still generates a lot of factual errors, and the tone is more robotic than personal or human like which is observed in ChatGPT. Calling Gemini, a competitor to Open AI could be a far shot unless it makes great technological advancements. The resources of Google can enable that, but the business dynamics are changing rapidly, and Open AI could soon end up opening a large lead in this domain.

So, what is keeping Gemini from going head-to-head with Open AI?

1. Open AI’s never-ending growth: Open AI recently recorded a revenue of $2 billion indicating its rapid growth in the past 18 months. In the middle of slowing economy where companies are struggling to have free flowing cash, Open AI is defying the odds with its superior product and constant upgrades in the ability of ChatGPT. Google, in turn, continues to grow but not via its B.A.R.D arm which has been slow to pick up.

2. The trillion-dollar chip investment: Open AI CEO, Sam Altman is on the lookout for trillion-dollar investment to set up chip foundries which indicate his vision to make ChatGPT even bigger and more powerful to leverage the power of Ai to its core. Google does have the resources, but it has other cash cows to focus upon instead of pumping trillion dollars into one of its divisions.

3. Self-bias effect of users: The past 18 months have seen users falling to ChatGPT for any help. With continuous advancement, users are spoilt for choice by sticking to the chatbot that is already making their lives easy instead of shifting to a new interface with no guarantee that it will give them the same experience as ChatGPT.

4. Research and Model definition methodology: While I am not expert, there is a missing chink in the armor of Google for its research methodology and model design which is causing it to not be at par with ChatGPT. While the training and prediction methodology can be generic, the level of parameters and trees used in the model definition seem to be a big differentiating factor for Gemini vs ChatGPT.

Gemini is an upgrade but not by Open AI standards and Google needs to make a significant shift in its design to capture the large population across the world who have ChatGPT open for any query, mail, or presentation they want to make.