ChatGPT has become massively popular since its launch in February 2023, but it’s not the only AI chatbot making waves. Enter Claude 2.1 created by AI startup Anthropic. This AI chatbot has several features and benefits to that of ChatGPT, but this does not make one “better” than the other. It simply gives people more power to delegate across large language model platforms for different projects, topics, and outcomes.
Are you sitting down? Good. Let’s explore the key differences between these two:
Claude.AI Features
File Uploads
Claude’s standout feature is its ability to analyze and summarize uploaded files like Microsoft Word documents, PDFs, CSVs, and more, up to 10MB in size. You can ask Claude to extract highlights and explain complex sections based on documents you provide as context. This level of document comprehension isn’t currently possible in ChatGPT.
Related: The Ethical Implications of ChatGPT: Addressing Bias and Privacy Concerns
Context Size
Claude 2.1 can process prompts with around 200k words of context in just a few minutes. ChatGPT is currently limited to only 8,000 words of context. More context allows Claude to follow long conversations and retain nuanced details for more accurate responses. But it is important to note that AI’s are simply accelerators. If you put in a poorly engineered prompt, ChatGPT or Claude will deliver a poorly written output.
Related: MAXIMIZING THE POTENTIAL OF AI WITH STRATEGIC PROMPT ENGINEERING
Plug-inS
Chat-GPT4 gives users access to several plug-ins with a premium subscription ($20/month). According to OpenAI’s website, plugins are tools designed specifically for language models with safety as a core principle and help ChatGPT access up-to-date information, run computations, or use third-party services. For example, you can use the Kayak plugin for travel prompts, or LinkReader for searching the web! This library of plugin capabilities is something exclusive to ChatGPT at this time as Claude does not host any plugin capabilities as of yet.
Recency of Information
Claude is trained on data through late 2022, so it has knowledge of events later than that of ChatGPT 3.5 which was trained on models from September of 2021. This gives Claude an edge on recent news, products, and events.
However, ChatGPT 4 has a new cutoff date of April 2023, and can browse the internet to help answer prompts.
Pricing and Availability
Both Claude and ChatGPT offer free and premium (paid) tiers. Anthropic provides Claude 2 for free during its open beta, while GPT-3 remains paid-only for ChatGPT. Paid plans are $20/month for priority access and increased usage.
The Verdict
At the end of the day, whether ChatGPT Plus or Claude 2.0 is the right fit comes down to the person and their priorities. Both AI platforms deliver advanced conversational AI but go about it in different ways.
There’s no universally “correct” choice between the two. Identify whether imagination or understanding is more crucial for you. Are specific plug-in integrations or ethical alignment bigger priorities? Once you identify your own needs and preferences, you’ll discover which advanced AI aligns better.
