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NEW ChatGPT Search vs Perplexity AI: Which One Should You Use?by@proflead
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NEW ChatGPT Search vs Perplexity AI: Which One Should You Use?

by Vladislav Guzey3mNovember 3rd, 2024
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ChatGPT Search is a feature in OpenAI's ChatGPT that allows it to look up current information on the internet. Perplexity AI is a search engine that uses artificial intelligence to provide direct answers to your questions, instead of just giving you a list of links. Both AIs give good answers and even provide maps with the restaurant locations.
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Two powerful AI tools are making waves in the world: NEW ChatGPT Search and Perplexity AI. But which one is better for you? I've tested them and want to share my results.

ChatGPT Search is a feature in OpenAI's ChatGPT that allows it to look up current information on the internet. This means ChatGPT can provide up-to-date answers on topics like news, weather, and sports scores.


ChatGPT Search


This feature will initially be available to ChatGPT Plus and Teams subscribers, with plans to expand access to all users in the future.

What is Perplexity AI?

Perplexity AI is a search engine that uses artificial intelligence to provide direct answers to your questions, instead of just giving you a list of links. When you ask something, it searches the internet and gives you a clear, conversational response with sources you can check. This makes finding information faster and easier.


Perplexity AI

ChatGPT Search vs. Perplexity AI

I’m going to try different versions of prompts to see how well these tools handle them.

General Search Tasks

Prompt: Tell me about proflead.dev website

ChatGPT


Perplexity w/ Cloude 3.5 Sonnet Model


Both answers are almost perfect, but Perplexity gives more descriptive information. You can also select different AI models inside Perplexity.


AI models inside Perplexity


Prompt: Find for me the best Thai restaurants in Chiang Mai city.

ChatGPT


Perplexity AI


Both AIs give good answers and even provide maps with the restaurant locations. But the visual map inside ChatGPT looks and works better. Both of these AIs use multiple sources to search for information.


For instance, ChatGPT uses about 12 sources.

ChatGPT


And Perplexity used nine sources.


Perplexity AI Sources


Real-Time Search Tasks

Let's try some real-time queries.


Prompt: What is the weather and air situation in Chiang Mai today?

ChatGPT


Perplexity AI


In this prompt, I asked two questions—about the weather and air quality. ChatGPT provides answers for both, while Perplexity only responds about the weather. However, Perplexity offers better visual graphics.


Prompt: What is the traffic situation in Chiang Mai now?

ChatGPT


Perplexity AI


ChatGPT's response was more accurate, while Perplexity's answer reflected information from three weeks ago. I'd say ChatGPT passed this test, while Perplexity may need a more specific prompt to improve its response.


Prompt: What are the Apple stock prices?

ChatGPT


Perplexity AI


ChatGPT's response was more concise and did not include any graphics, whereas Perplexity provided a more detailed answer along with an impressive interactive chart.

Topic Specific Tasks

I also asked the AI a few programming questions. They might sound simple, but in the past, some AIs struggled to answer them correctly.


Prompt: Is this expression true in JavaScript true == "true"?

ChatGPT


Perplexity AI


This time, Perplexity's response was better because it provided explanations along with code examples, whereas ChatGPT only gave explanations.


Prompt: how about 0 == "0"?


Both AIs maintained context very well, allowing for follow-up questions.

ChatGPT


Perplexity AI


Again, Perplexity provides an answer with the code example, and ChatGPT is just a simple reply. Plus, Perplexity also provides some follow-up questions to ask. It's really useful sometimes.

Perplexity AI

Video Comparison

You can find all these examples, along with a few more, in my YouTube video.

Watch on YouTube: 

Conclusion

It’s really hard to pick a winner because both tools are excellent, and the subscription prices are the same (20 USD/month). I’ll keep using both for now and after a couple of months, I’ll decide which one becomes my favorite.


If you’ve tried them, please share your experience, and let me know which one you prefer.


Cheers!