Using ChatGPT v. Google
Insight: See who wins in 5 familiar use cases.
First published in ‘Illumination’ magazine on Medium, January 19, 2023, within months of the launch of chatGPT.
Imagine, if you can, a human-robot with the power of ChatGPT sitting in the chair opposite yours by the fireplace, conversing with you on all topics you desire, executing your tasks online in parallel, with the ability to get up and make you a cup of coffee. How far-fetched is the idea now?
If you haven’t used ChatGPT, stop reading and try it here first.
Back?
Ever watched Star Trek? (the original, of course!)
chatGPT is the 2022 reality of its 1969 vision of an onboard vocal computer able to answer any query that Spock and Kirk throw at it. Even when it returns with the dreaded “insufficient data” response.
While Google will keep sharing bad or irrelevant results hoping you know what to do with them, ChatGPT will simply tell you it doesn’t know. Unless you ask a different question.
But I am getting ahead of myself. How about some face-off criteria first?
Note: Let’s agree that chatGPT is by design an AI engine and Google is a search algorithm that uses natural language processing and machine learning. What is relevant here is the use cases, not the underlying tech.
1. Ease of finding information
One aspect of this comparison lies in context. For instance, if you wish to learn:
How do birds sleep?
ChatGPT is your best bet even if not perfect in grammar or punctuation (for which there is always Grammarly). You will get an instant complete answer that can satisfy your boredom, settle a hotly debated argument or open roads to a more selective curiosity. You can also “like” or upvote its answer to teach it correctness or click “Regenerate response” to vary the response to the same question. See below:
Google, on the other hand, decides to show you what someone somewhere online has decided to post that comes closest to your query. In this case, it shares that 25.2 million results were found in an impressive 0.53 seconds which is also a bit pointless because humans cannot search through them all.
Its first pick of “yes, birds sleep” does not jive with the question asked. Suggested “People also ask” questions also fall short as you see below. But for most people, attuned to Google searches, this level of results may be enough to learn if birds sleep.
If not, it is up to you to determine qualified sources, navigate to the most relevant links (or dodge the sponsored links), and discover the right answer by trawling through each of the relevant sites.
This is also how you fall into a rabbit hole following links and get distracted from the original task.
It is fun if you are out for an adventure like Alice but not so good for getting things done as David Allen suggests.
To generate different results in Google, you have to modify your keywords and search again. In ChatGPT, you click a button.
But what if you want to get to a result quickly and more precisely?
Winner: ChatGPT
2. Ease of using the information to take action.
This depends on the action you wish to take. If it is to eat at a nearby restaurant based on cuisine, meal, and reviews, and get directions for your choice, then Google is still your best bet and unlikely to be trumped by ChatGPT anytime soon.
But if you want to quickly write a letter or email to the local authority complaining about an incorrect water bill? Read for yourself its response to the specific ask below returned in less than 30 seconds:
write a letter or email to the local council regarding my high water bill
It needed minimal input to generate a ready-to-use letter with phrases and logic that a human touch would imply.
It also made the logical assumption that “high” meant higher than ever before or that it would be reasonable to have checked for causes first.
Note the contextual phrasing: “shocked” “checked for” “responsible customer” “always paid my bills on time” “provide me with an explanation” and “investigate the matter.”
Ordinarily, this would require 30 minutes to an hour of human time including curating results, reviewing, editing, and submission after first searching Google for “why is my water bill so high.”
Productivity will no longer be held captive by these types of admin tasks.
Google presented a woefully inadequate response to the same question (even with videos, images included in the results) requiring you to do the heavy lifting.
Google incorrectly assumes, by default, that location is important. It accurately translated the query to letters of complaint. But note the top results that include a job board site, Indeed.com lamely advising you to “Name your resolution desires” as step 5. The link points to email complaints under “career development.”
Google’s search algorithm becomes limiting when confronted by task orientation. Search results are reflective of the quality of content online. In non-US locales, the quality can drop dramatically and result in frustration.
Winner: ChatGPT
Pop quiz: What does ChatGPT have in common with Data from Star Trek Next Generation, R2D2, and C3-PO from Star Wars?
3. Needing a reference tool or a librarian
ChatGPT is the curator of the museum of information where you can find interesting tidbits, write a paper, look up relevant case law, fix your code, learn how to do a database join, or get a text template.
AI has advanced copywriting (copy.ai) and other textual communication, but after talking to online customer support chatbots (try Samsung!), you can see the breakthrough chatGPT has achieved at contextual humanoid communication.
Google in contrast is like the all-you-can-eat buffet. You need structure, discipline, and mindfulness to eat healthily, feel satisfied but not overful, and leave room for dessert.
For example, if you are looking for random suggestions to the question:
can you suggest some books to read that are positive and funny
Google’s answer below may meet the bar.
But with chatGPT’s diverse list below, you have learned more in 10 seconds than you could have trawling through myriad blogs on Google.
Winner: ChatGPT
4. Acting in real-time
Google will still triumph in any real-time information required to act — whether it is a news story, book release, or movie times.
For now, chatGPT in research mode has been limited to its last info intake of 2021 so it is not aware of human history beyond that year.
For a behind-the-scenes view of chatGPT, read this excellent article by Molly Ruby
How chatGPT will adapt to real-time queries in the future, how often it updates its source of info, and at what speed is a matter of conjecture. Its research is ongoing, but until then, Google (or Bing if you are in an alternate world) is your go-to for now.
Winner: Google
5. Variety is the spice of life.
Whether you believe that is true for all parts of life is subjective. If you want to know what 5 writers online think of a specific topic, want to watch videos of someone cooking a recipe you are interested in, find free images, watch DIY videos or simply wish to engage with others on a forum, Google still is the go-to place for all forms of media.
Google results are automatically ranked in terms of a secret sauce that attempts to ensure the most relevant and valid info surfaces first unless tempered by ads or sponsored links from its monetization algorithm. This may skew what you read, see or learn and navigating them is also an art form.
Variety of content, sources, and media in both quality and quantity are still the realm of Google.
But keep in mind that chatGPT is foreshadowing the future that Google transformed 20 years ago.
Winner: Google
A word of caution
You need to be aware at all times that chatGPT is a computer, processing, analyzing, and synthesizing vast amounts of information available to it. The answer, while fun and very useful can also be subject to AI malfunctions and carry bias. Whether it is true or reflects universal human values needs to be rigorously tested. You have to apply a healthy dose of common sense, cross-reference the output, and weigh all the risks inherent in using online content (even if found via Google).
Remember, AI bots can hallucinate — dream up answers that fail tests of accuracy, accepted realities or science.
Conclusion
Using ChatGPT is like having a quiet conversation over coffee with an expert where you go on a quest at your pace, seeking as much or as little info as you want, on any variety of topics, without the noise or clutter of other thoughts muddying waters.
You forget it is a computer trawling through 175 billion parameters of data accumulated from all of the human wisdom made available to it, learned enough from other humans to understand it, and now conveys that meaning to you in a way that makes you assume another human is talking to you.
In contrast, Google now seems effort-intensive with curation, review, validation, and application.
Consider this: Is the concept of sentient AI now worth a debate?
The landscape of help, search, content creation, curation, attribution, and distribution, and the whole world of learning has unalterably shifted in magnitude on a Richter scale of 10. I will cover some of this impact in other posts.
Bottom line?
Our business and personal lives will be irrevocably transformed to the times of before and after chatGPT — of this, there is no doubt.'
This article reflects the first versions of chatGPT released, and its power of comprehension has only increased tremendously.
I've been using chatGPT for a bit now. I consider it a thesaurus on performance enhancing drugs. Usually, it's helpful. Other times it is not. I've also begun to use Gemini. It's a different user experience. I find it better in some ways, but have also found it frustrating. For instance, I was writing about an experience I had in my life, and looking to improve my word choice, syntax, etc... The words "Daughters of the Confederacy" were on a tombstone I was writing about. Gemini wouldn't touch my inquiry, and somewhat lectured me on inappropriate subject matter. That was a bit frustrating. I understood why it was being careful and even appreciated it, but it was clear there are a lot of things to work out in the world of AI.
All in all, it just takes some getting used to the system, and knowing how to generate the responses I am looking for.
Google results firstly give sponsored (paid) links, which are often not at all what you want, or take you to a competitor site, e.g. if you look up a business. This has only gotten worse with Google's introduction of AI capabilities. Next, Google shows you what OTHER people found useful, the algorithm is basically a popularity contest. This is what people still seem to not understand about Google, even though it's been around for decades. So if a million people read a nonsense article about measles, that will be higher up. Google was never about accuracy, it was always about most viewed. Google did modify their algorithms a long time ago to address the problem of rubbish results (because the population likes reading rubbish), to try to boost legitimate and relevant results, e g. Now Mayo clinic results are higher up, rather than buried on page three.
Even with AI added, Google is still fundamentally a search engine, and will still show you what other people found useful, rather than what YOU would find useful.
ChatGPT is a tool for doing things, although it's also a good and far more efficient search engine, certainly better than Google. You can get a recipe from either tool, for example, but only ChatGPT will give you a meal plan for the next week, with the associated shopping list.