Cloud Hosting

Microsoft was quick on the draw to enter the AI chatbot race, launching Bing Chat back in February in hopes of driving some growth for their underdog search engine. Unfortunately, their strategy didnt seem to move the needle, with Bings growth mostly staying flat throughout the year. Now it looks like the Redmond giant is trying something new.

Bing Chat got a rebrand to Copilot and has been integrated into a bunch of Microsoft products including Edge and Windows 11. But mobile was an afterthought, with no direct way to access Copilot you had to download Edge or the Bing app. As a frequent Copilot user (its basically free GPT-4!), I always thought it would be really slick to have a dedicated app so I dont have to launch Edge every time. Well ask and ye shall receive the Copilot app is finally here on Android.

If youve already used Copilot in its web form, its mobile app will feel instantly familiar. You get the same messaging-style interface with sample prompts to get started with. But where it really shines is that everything seems to work more smoothly and responsively compared to Copilot web integrations like the one in Edge or Bing search. Actions like clearing the chat history to start afresh are lightning-quick, and the overall experience is very polished. Beyond the slick interface, the app delivers all the core capabilities youd expect, like drafting emails, documents, and even AI-generated images through Dall-E 3 integration.

With over 10 million downloads, the ChatGPT app is arguably Copilots biggest rival, even though their makers are more allies than competitors. ChatGPTs main advantage today is speed responses are typically instant, regardless of length or complexity. Meanwhile, Copilot can feel sluggish, taking time to digest prompts and search for additional context before formulating a reply. When it does produce output, its delivered line-by-line over several seconds.

Theres also a 4,000-character limit on Copilot, rendering the quick digestion of large documents tricky unless you split them into smaller chunks. On ChatGPT, the cap is way higher. ChatGPT recently also gained a nifty voice chat feature which has been designed such that it feels like youre talking to a real human on call no exaggeration.

Meanwhile, Copilot has the less fancy voice input mode you tap the mic and turn speech into text, then get a robotic voice read out the AIs response.

If ChatGPT is so awesome, why bother switching to Copilot at all? The biggest perk is the free web access and GPT-4. GPT-4 is a major step up from GPT-3.5 and just produces far more nuanced and accurate responses. Its also less likely to hallucinate. Overall, I found Copilots answers a lot easier to trust.

Then theres the fact Copilot can use the whole internet, meaning you can ask about current events. For example, if you ask the free ChatGPT Whats the most powerful iPhone?, itll probably say the iPhone 13 Pro Max from 2021. But Copilot gets it right iPhone 15 Pro Max, itll say. Likewise, prompts like Whats todays news? and Show me the cheapest flights from Delhi to Mumbai are actually useful, unlike on the free ChatGPT app. Sure, you can buy ChatGPT Plus, but at almost Rs 2,000 a month, it isnt exactly cheap.

Copilot also lets you generate images straight from the chat, which you cant do at all with the free ChatGPT. And finally, Copilot lets you adjust the tone of the responses between Creative, Balanced, and Precise for more granular control.

So in a nutshell: Think of Copilot as the poor mans ChatGPT Plus. ChatGPT Plus is still the best for power users, but if you dont wish to pay and are okay with Copilots slower speeds, youll be just fine with swapping ChatGPT for Copilot on your home screen like I did.

IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd

Zohaib is a tech enthusiast and a journalist who covers the latest trends and innovations at The Indian Express's Tech Desk. A graduate in Computer Applications, he firmly believes that technology exists to serve us and not the other way around. He is fascinated by artificial intelligence and all kinds of gizmos, and enjoys writing about how they impact our lives and society. After a day's work, he winds down by putting on the latest sci-fi flick. Experience: 3 years Education: Bachelor in Computer Applications Previous experience: Android Police, Gizmochina Social: Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn ... Read More

First uploaded on: 27-12-2023 at 14:14 IST

Original post:

Copilot vs ChatGPT: Which free Android AI chatbot app should you use? - The Indian Express