Claude vs. ChatGPT: 2024 Chatbot Comparison – eWeek
GPT4 and Claude are both leading generative AI applications, but which is best for your purposes?
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GPT4 and Claude are both leading AI applications that use generative AI. GPT4 is the latest version of ChatGPT, the popular AI-based chatbot that can generate articles and computer code and perform various tasks. GPT4 is supported by OpenAI and Microsoft.
Claude is created by Anthropic and is a newer application in the AI field. It is supported by Google, Zoom and Slack, and has received significant investment over the last several months.
So which generative AI app is best, GPT4 or Claude 2? In this comparison of ChatGPT and Claude, we analyzed both application’s key features, pricing, and pros and cons to help you determine the best solution for your needs.
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Here is a head-to-head feature comparison of GPT4 and Claude.
ChatGPT is an abbreviation for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, a form of advanced artificial intelligence (AI). GPT4 simulates thought by using a neural network machine learning model trained on a vast trove of data gathered from the internet.
GPT4 goes far beyond being a chatbot. This generative AI app creates documents and articles and solves problems. GPT4 can also do image interpretation using multimodal language AI models. This enables it to build websites based on sketches and suggest recipes based on a photo of what is in the fridge or sitting on a countertop.
For more information, also see: ChatGPT: Understanding the ChatGPT ChatBot
Claude 2 is an AI assistant from Anthropic that is accessible through a chat interface or API. It is capable of conversational and text processing. Use cases include summarization, search, creative and collaborative writing, formulating Q&A and some basic coding.
It gives fast responses to customer service requests and can hand off tasks to a human when needed. Claude is particularly good at editing, rewriting, summarizing, classifying and extracting structured data. It can also follow basic instructions and logical scenarios, analyze strategic risks and opportunities based on annual reports, assess the pros and cons of a piece of legislation and identify risks in legal documents.
GPT4 and Claude are at the center of the generative AI battle royale in the technology sector. Let us compare their key features to help determine the best option for you.
GPT4 is used a lot in chatbot applications to automate customer service, answer FAQs, and engage in conversation. It can respond conversationally by tapping into a comprehensive set of online text, as well as news items, novels, websites, and more.
Overall, GPT4 does a good job of analyzing information, evaluating online behavior, and even makes product recommendations as part of the online sales and upselling process. Automation features extend to appointment scheduling, reservations, payment processing, queries about shipping schedules, order progress, product returns, product and service availability, and more with a good level of accuracy.
Claude can be viewed as more of a focused chatbot than GPT4. It can be tailored to certain use cases and data sets such as customer service, legal, back office and sales. It can also be taught when to hand off tasks to a human.
You define the data set to analyze, summarize or use for context, and it can respond conversationally. It can speak a variety of common languages, as well as programming languages. However, it doesn’t search the internet like GPT4. You can provide Claude with text from the internet and ask it to perform tasks with that content.
Verdict: GPT4 wins overall – but Claude may prove better at narrower chat use cases.
GPT4 can be prone to be error-based, because some of its data may not be current. But most of the time it is accurate. GPT4 added a greater degree of accuracy. OpenAI stated that GPT4 is 82% less likely than its predecessor to respond to requests for content that OpenAI does not allow, and 60% less likely to invent answers. But don’t expect it to be perfect. That includes coding – its programming output should always be verified by human eyes.
Claude is also prone to errors. Some believe Claude is better at answering queries as it takes answers from a narrower data set. This is beneficial in areas such as history, geography and entertainment. A big difference between Claude and GPT4 is that Claude can admit that it doesn’t know.
Verdict: This category is even. GPT4 is more accurate than Claude in many areas, yet Claude’s accuracy is better in some use cases.
On a related topic: What is Generative AI?
GPT can be plugged into other applications to generate responses via an API. Plugins are becoming available, including those for the likes of Kayak, Expedia, OpenTable, Slack and Shopify, with more on the way. It is also integrated with a lot of different programming languages.
Claude has done an excellent job of developing partners, too. They include Notion, Quora, DuckDuckGo, Slack and Zoom. Watch out for tighter Google integration going forward, too. Claude can integrate with a wide range of apps via API.
The Claude App for Slack can summarize threads and answer questions. For Zoom, Claude is being integrated into the Zoom contact center, meetings, phone, team chat, whiteboard, and Zoom IQ.
Verdict: Both integrate well, but Claude perhaps comes out slightly ahead.
For more information about the overall AI software sector: Top AI Software
Unfortunately, there’s not a lot to say about the security of these two AI chatbots, because they are so new, and security has not been a major focus as they’ve been built. Expect this to change going forward, but in any case, it’s never a good idea to create AI prompts from sensitive business information.
As noted, GPT4 hasn’t really had much attention on security to date. Developers using it are expected to build in their own security features. Claude, to its credit, uses industry-standard best practices for data handling and retention, yet still is not intended for private business information.
Verdict: Neither is particularly well known for security, but Claude gets the nod.
Also see: ChatGPT vs. Google Bard
GPT4 has a basic version available for free but the main ChatGPT Plus version costs roughly $20/month. Subscribers gain access to ChatGPT at peak times, faster responses, and priority access to new features and improvements.
On top of the basic subscription, there is a pricing scale per 1,000 tokens (chunks of words). 1,000 tokens comes out to about 750 words of material. The higher rate provides access to a larger set of contextual data.
Claude 2 has a subscription and a pricing scale options. The subscription plan, Cluade Pro, costs $20 per month plus tax. There are three scale versions of Claude. Claude Instant is a lighter, less expensive and much faster option. Claude 2 is the high-performance version that can take care of sophisticated dialogue and creative content generation as well as detailed instruction following. Claude 2.1 offers the same performance as Claude 2 with reduction in hallucination rates.
For context, 100,000 tokens works out to roughly 70,000 words or six hours of audio.
Verdict: Due to the added monthly subscription in GPT4, it is hard to be certain who wins in the long term. But it looks like Claude 2 wins on pricing.
For more about AI chatbots: ChatGPT vs GitHub Copilot
ChatGPT has a higher profile than Claude – more total users – yet it is also prone to hallucinations, and is a little slower.
Claude is known to be a fast AI chatbot, but it’s list of languages is far smaller.
The decision of whether to choose GPT4 or Claude 2 depends on your needs, priorities and budget. To break it down, Claude 2’s standout feature is its ethical framework, while GPT4 excels as a generalist.
GPT4 can perform complex tasks. It has achieved some success with basic computer programming duties. It ventures well beyond that into territory such as drawing up simple lawsuits, creating elementary computer games, passing exams, checking for plagiarism, generating written content, summarizing documentation, highlighting key passages within the text, and translating languages.
On the other hand, Claude 2 shines in key areas like legal applications, math and science, and safety. Its constitutional AI enables it to understand and apply ethical principles and guidelines when providing output. This makes Claude 2 a suitable choice for professionals in fields that require adherence to ethical standards, such as legal practitioners or researchers in sensitive scientific areas.
For comprehensive conversational applications, GPT-4 still leads in general performance whereas Claude 2’s strengths make it a worthy challenger that can go toe-to-toe with GPT4 in various disciplines.
Also see: Top Generative AI Apps and Tools
GPT4 uses a transformer-based architecture as part of a neural network that handles sequential data. It appears to perform capably in coding, and does a very good job on chat, language translation, answering questions, understanding images, and can even determine why a joke is funny. GPT4 has thrown its hat in the ring with Microsoft – which offers many benefits in terms of development and support.
Claude, on the other hand, favors Google. It is less comprehensive than GPT4 but can respond without searching the internet. It does a good job of digesting, summarizing and explaining financial documents and research papers. Like all AI chatbots, it may sometimes assess its own ability or memory incorrectly, makeup information, and make errors in complicated arithmetic. But certainly GPT4 makes errors, too.
Claude is very much a work in progress, it’s not as comprehensive as GPT4 right now. Give it a few months and we’ll see how far it comes. But for now, GPT4 does a better job.
For more about new companies that are influencing the future of AI, see our guide: Generative AI Startups
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