It’s a business race between the best technology companies in the world. The launch of ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI, transformed human interaction with artificial intelligence (AI) and sparked an unprecedented revolution around the world. Its debut in late 2022 and its undeniable success since then have forced tech giants to compete with each other to offer the most advanced or versatile solutions. Meta has its chat, Llama 2, and has just launched Code Llama, specifically designed for programmers who write code and capable of attracting customers with Microsoft or OpenAI payment models. Google also has its own chatbot that speaks in first-person, poses as a human, and performs the most creative tasks.
Although Apple hasn’t confirmed its version, that doesn’t mean it’s been eliminated from the competition. According to Bloomberg, the Cupertino-based company is testing generative artificial intelligence internally, suggesting it may have plans to incorporate it into its most popular products like the iPhone or iPad.
ChatGPT, the first and most powerful
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, ushered in the era of conversational chats and has already had over a million users less than five days after its launch. The GPT 3.5 version is free to use and allows writing essays, translations, code, poems and more using short text inputs. You can also answer questions informatively, even if they are open-ended or whimsical. However, it will collect information until 2021 and is therefore unable to generate or evaluate current information.
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Users paying $20 a month have access to GPT-4, the most powerful version that communicates more naturally and fluently than the free model and is also better at writing programming code. Notable improvements include that it connects to the internet, captures irony, and is able to create text indistinguishable from human-written text. In addition, paid users have access to the chatbot even during usage peaks when the platform stops working in the free version.
Target: Llama 2 and Code Llama
Meta, Marck Zuckerberg’s company, has blazed its own trail in the artificial intelligence race with Llama. Initially, this model was reserved for guest researchers until it was leaked just a week after its release on the 4chan forums. In mid-July, Zuckerberg launched Llama 2, whose main partner is Microsoft. It is a version that has been trained with 40% more data and connects to the internet.
Llama 2 marks a turning point in the field of artificial intelligence, as an open-source platform allows companies to create their own applications for free. Additionally, on Thursday the company released Code Llama, a streamlined option for programmers that promises to “lower the barrier to entry for people learning to code,” the company said. Being free, it could have an even greater impact on competition by discouraging users from opting for paid utilities like Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, which is based on OpenAI.
Today we’re releasing Code Llama, a large language model built on top of Llama 2, specifically optimized for coding and state-of-the-art for publicly available coding tools.
Following our open approach, Code Llama is now publicly available for both research and commercial use.
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—Meta AI (@MetaAI) August 24, 2023
The user who wants to download both models, Llama 2 or Code Llama, can request them on the site, but access is not instantaneous. However, Llama 2 can be tested in chat form in this Perplexity Labs development. Meta claims the model is trained on publicly available online data, but its results appear to be inferior to the competition. Between bugs, the language is randomly changed to English. Despite the criticism, the company is confident in the collaborative approach, although it has concerns about what that might mean if it falls into the hands of bad actors.
Google: Bard and Workspace
Bard by Google is free. To use it, all you need is a corporate account, the same one you use in Gmail or Drive. Like ChatGPT, it offers multiple answers to a single question, but is more versatile: in addition to writing texts, it can also read aloud, similar to the feature already present in the popular Google translator. And the generated responses can be forwarded to Gmail or Docs, or shared via a public link.
A major difference from GPT-3.5 is access to up-to-date information. While the free version of OpenAI collects data until 2021, Bard capitalizes on the freshness of the web. It also tracks the source of your replies and can be accessed directly by the user via a link in the chat.
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Conversational chat isn’t Google’s only option. The company has released new updates to Workspace, its business tool. For example, the new resources make it possible to summarize and respond to long email threads, turn those conversations into reports, and even turn those reports into slides. According to the company, there will also be the ability to personalize dozens of messages in a spreadsheet. So far, only a few companies have been able to test the new functions.
Microsoft: Bing and Copilot
Microsoft is involved on almost all fronts. It has an alliance with Meta for Llama 2 and is the major investor in OpenAI (with $10,000 million). But there is also its own model of conversational chat: Bing, the renewed version of its search engine, incorporates information from the Internet, presents the sources of your answers and it is possible to export them in Word, PDF or text format. The company’s big hope is to wrest market share from Google, although there are some caveats. For example, only answer up to five questions in a single thread. If you reach this limit, you will have to start a new chat.
On the other hand, among the advantages over Bard, Microsoft’s commitment stands out for its ability to perform more sophisticated searches in some cases. For example, if you ask for a restaurant recommendation that’s available on a specific date, Bing not only shows their names, but also their respective websites where you can make a reservation. while Bard limits himself to offering the names.
For the corporate world, the company has introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot, a solution similar to Google’s Workspace but included in the Office suite that includes popular tools like Word, Excel or Powerpoint. Currently, to access the resource, you must be part of Windows 11 Insiders, an exclusive program for invited commercial customers. It is not yet known when it will be available to the general public.
Apple is unknown
Apple seems to be pursuing a more cautious strategy. Last June, the company announced the use of artificial intelligence to improve autocorrect and dictation in iOS 17, which is a more modest approach compared to its competitors. The company even avoids mentioning terms like GPT, AI or Advanced Language Models in its presentations. However, as Bloomberg reports, the Apple company uses a tool similar to ChatGPT internally to support its employees in their work. Meanwhile, the company is considering implementing such a technology in its products, which is rumored to be called Apple GPT. With this innovation, Apple users would be able to leverage conversations features right within iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, which they can access with their Apple ID without having to download third-party apps.
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