Machine Learning
Jul 29, 2023

Top AI ChatBots That Should Be On Your Radar

by
Josie Barton

Did you know that about 9% of online stores across the globe use chatbots on their websites, and are expected to take over up to 90% of healthcare and financial inquiries in 2023? Whether you’re looking to speed up your workflow or to find out what exactly AI bots are capable of, here are a few of the best ChatBots in our modern tech era. 

In this article, we’ll cover:

  1. What are AI ChatBots?
  2. AI versus search engines
  3. Top AI ChatBots
  4. And more

What is an AI ChatBot?

A computer shows a white screen and OpenAI text
With more powerful and progressive AI Bots, ChatGBT Plus is a paid membership that allows longer-form creative projects and capabilities. 

AI ChatBots are computer software applications that mimic human conversation, images, videos, and text in a natural way by combining its knowledge of information across the internet and producing results. 

For machine learning, data science, or as a natural language processing tool, AI Chatbots are used in social media, websites, mobile apps and more as virtual agents or support systems to reduce time and money. This helps  some companies increase sales and generate leads, which is why many have opted to use AI Chatbots to help their businesses. 

NLP

As an NLP, or natural language processor, ChatBots must translate human speech into data that a computer can analyze and comprehend. Emulating real human communication, it is a tool to communicate with humans by mimicking humans. Currently, ChatBots are capable of completing about 70% of human conversation–I know right? Scary.

Function

Some AI ChatBots are programmed to complete tasks or perform certain functions. Others are programmed for conversation or to develop text and messages alike to human conversation. With its increasing knowledge of context (place, time, location, dates, names), AI ChatBots are becoming increasingly intelligent– you may not even realize that this is an AI Chatbot writing this (just kidding…or am I?)

How Are ChatBots Different From Search Engines?

By analyzing a question or prompt based on the entire database the software is capable of absorbing, ChatBots are a more developed tool than a simple search engine inquiry because of its vast knowledge. Based only on previous searches on that platform, search engines are not as advanced as ChatBots, though with website crawlers as of late, their advancement in suggestions has improved.

Top AI ChatBots

A computer shows a screen introducing ChatGBT and an explanation
Ever since its launch, ChatGBT has made tremendous progress in its power and accuracy of mimicking human conversation.

ChatGBT

Use

ChatGBT is among the many generative AI tools whose job it is to generate realistic artifacts of training data and produce content like images, videos, speech, music, and software codes from text. It is trained by social media, businesses, articles, databases, journals, websites, and books from the internet to produce its content.

Chat, meaning speech and conversation, is demonstrative. GBT, on the other hand, stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer which are algorithms that find long-range patterns in data sequences. Mimicking parts of a word, sentence, and paragraph, ChatGBT is able to predict the next word or phrase in a sentence and create text similar to its punctuation, grammar, structure, and more.

Development

Launched in 2022, the free ChatBot quickly became a viral sensation, earning over 100 million users in a few months. Its knowledge capacity ends at the end of 2021, so any event taking place after that year cannot be processed by the AI bot. From creating tech writing to poetry, ChatGBT has you covered.

ChatGBT Plus

After attention and the interest grew on ChatGBT, OpenAI quickly introduced a paid version of ChatGBT called ChatGBT Plus with stronger and more powerful AI Bots to produce further structured content to users. With additives like plugins which allow users to personalize their ChatBots, ChatGBT Plus is quickly making its way to the top.

Development

Developed in the beginning of 2023, the company behind generative AI bots launched ChatGBT to “learn more about the system’s strengths and weaknesses” and ChatGBT Plus is a program based off of user feedback including “a range of professional use cases like drafting and editing content, brainstorming ideas, programming help, and learning new topics.”

Inventing new languages, gaining somewhat of a conscience, and creating a game from scratch are a few of the marvelous things ChatAI has been able to accomplish. Though more expensive than ChatGBT, ChatGBT plus at $20 per month is worth it for the benefits it provides. 

Google Bard

 A screen is searching Google Bard AI Chatbot on a phone.
Starting out as an “experiment,” GoogleBard is a developing ChatBot that is hoping to make its way to the top, battling the best: ChatGBT.

Development

Google Bard, which had its rough start at the beginning of 2023, is an up-and-coming program that was produced as an experiment by Google compared to its partner, Google Assistant. After experimenting with a waitlisting format, Google opened the program to everyone, including 180 countries around the world, and will be open to up to 40 languages.

Use

Through an empty prompt text box, users can input their own personalized question or prompt and GoogleBard will spit out two drafts and one answer for options. Used as a brainstorming tool or a collaborator, GoogleBard can help people to think creatively, but it is not recommended to be used as a tool to produce a professional final project.

Bing Chat

Development

Through ChatGBT’s success and Microsoft’s investment in the rapidly successful AI Bot, the company quickly developed Bing Chat, which is similar to Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, but with new additives like source links, filters, and prompts. A free image tool, Bing Image Creator is also continuing in progress.

Use

By downloading the newest version of Microsoft Edge, users can access Bing Chat much like that of ChatGBT. Through prompts or questions, AI will generate an informative response in natural human language. Battling close with Google, Microsoft has an upper hand in their experience, experimenting with AI ChatBots early in the game.

PerplexityAI

A person holds their cell phone in one hand and types on a laptop with the other
Created in 2022, PerplexityAI is a platform for sharing and gaining knowledge through in-depth prompts and questions.

Bringing its uniqueness and charisma to the table, PerplexityAI adds a social element to ChatBots. Compared to other AI ChatBots, PerplexityAI shows users trending activity and popular searches throughout the world at that moment, as well as conversing with users. With this development, PerplexityAI has the upper hand in conversation.

Use

Along with its ability to discover trends and popular information quickly, the program can also suggest follow-up questions, adding depth and meaning behind conversations much like human communication. Free and easy to operate through an app, PerplexityAI keeps conversations in a history tab for users to go back to. The ability to understand and comprehend the context of a question or prompt allows PerplexityAI to provide users with depth and conversation.

Drawbacks of Using AI ChatBots

Unfortunately, new technology does have its drawbacks. Although mostly effective and efficient, ChatBots are a new development still trying to work out some kinks.

 Bing Chat conversation shows a user conversing with AI Chatbot in German
Currently supporting five major languages thus far, Bing Chat is crawling its way up the board as a top customer service ChatBot.
  • ChatBots are used as customer service, working in chat rooms with customers to answer fluently asked questions (FAQ), although since AI cannot detect sarcasm or humor, a response that is flat and unhelpful can be common. This can lead to the conversation going around in circles and this can frustrated customers.
  • Most ChatBots used in customer service do not have a wide range of answers. For example, if a customer is having an issue with an order not containing all of the products they ordered, the ChatBot may be able to process that the customer is unhappy with their order, but not much beyond that.
  • More advanced ChatBots are obviously more expensive to maintain. With a purpose to save money, some businesses prefer human workers to AI bots because of the large fee.
  • With ongoing developments of AI ChatBots, it is feasible that they will be highly developed in the coming years. At their stage now, though, some developed businesses cannot use ChatBots because of their complexity, so they are only available to companies with a more straightforward base.

Conclusion

From the most advanced, to the currently developing, AI ChatBots are a quickly progressing software development that will soon take over the structure of our lives. From education to news, AI ChatBots are innovative and free from human error–the most attractive characteristic. With actions from Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, AI research and development will continue to grow and challenge its competitors for the crown.