As part of our ongoing exploration of chat-based AI tools, we have been using both ChatGPT and Bing Chat Enterprise. In this article we want to share our experience and compare the features, performance and usability of the two platforms.

What are these tools?

ChatGPT and Bing Chat Enterprise both utilize OpenAI’s GPT model as the foundation of their technology.

GPT, short for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, are expansive language models trained on billions of words from the web.

If you’re curious about the intricate details, background, or scientific understanding of these systems, check out this article. It’s a great resource to deepen your knowledge on the subject.

Comparing ChatGPT and Bing Chat Enterprise

ChatGPT was released to the public in late 2022. It’s known for its ability to generate natural and engaging responses.

Bing Chat Enterprise, along with its consumer editions, came out a few months ago. This service is more of an evolution of Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Both ChatGPT and Bing Chat Enterprise aim to provide human-like interactions. They answer your questions and engage in conversation, mimicking a human assistant, to help you reach the desired response or output.

The Basics:

ChatGPT offers a free plan, but it also has a plus plan costing $20 USD per month. With the plus plan, you aren’t restricted or queued by the heavy load the product sometimes experiences. It also comes with key features, more customization options, third-party add-ons, and access to the more advanced ChatGPT 4.

Bing Chat Enterprise is free. While it had many features that enhance your experience, customisation and personalisation is not currently available.

Digging Deeper: 

Let’s dig a little deeper into the differences between the two tools.

Quality of responses

The initial users of AI models within the I.T. Team found that ChatGPT just seemed to “get it right” more often. They liked it better and ended up using it when Bing didn’t give them what they needed, even though they were keen to use Bing first (for reasons we’ll talk about in a bit). 

ChatGPT’s responses often had that “wow factor,” with details and accuracy that went beyond expectations. Bing, on the other hand, had this character limit that made copy-pasting difficult, and its answers were usually shorter, sometimes just sending you off to a reference website for more information.  

One significant difference between ChatGPT and Bing is the information they can access. ChatGPT relies on data that’s up to date as of 2021, while Bing taps directly into the Internet for real-time info.

Customisation:

When comparing the features of Bing and ChatGPT to assist in generating content, some notable differences emerge. Bing offers both a “Compose” mode and a “Chat” mode, each designed for different applications. Within the Compose mode, you can guide Bing by selecting the type of content you want, like a Blog, Email, or Paragraph, and even suggest a tone – Casual, Professional, Funny. But as of now, customisations are limited.

On the other hand, ChatGPT doesn’t offer specific suggestions on tone or content type to begin with, but it does provide a unique feature called ‘Custom Instructions.’ This tool allows you to input context about yourself, like your role and location, or details about your organization. This not only saves time but improves accuracy, and it’s something that sets ChatGPT apart from Bing.

Privacy:

When considering the integration of AI tools like Bing Chat Enterprise and ChatGPT into your organisation, understanding how they handle privacy and data security is paramount.

One area where Bing Chat Enterprise stands out is its ability to integrate with your 365 tenancy and user account. This not only makes it a part of your IT environment but also provides the assurance that you can add internal or sensitive data without fretting over privacy concerns.

In contrast, ChatGPT requires individual registration, likely through a personal email account (such as Gmail or Microsoft Live) and doesn’t offer the option to create a corporate account or use Single Sign-On (SSO) across your organization. It’s tied to each user, making it a less seamless fit for business use.

A critical difference, however, lies in data security. Using ChatGPT may expose your data for learning or access by third parties. While you can disable the saving or recording of interactions, you then lose the handy history function, which can be useful for reviewing past activity and gaining insights. BingAI doesn’t really maintain much of a history either, except for current or recent interactions.

So when it comes to safeguarding your organisation’s data, ChatGPT might not be the best fit. You’ll probably find yourself needing to remove or obscure sensitive information, like names and identifiable details. Bing Chat Enterprise, on the other hand, can be used more freely, making it a substantial advantage for many businesses.

Limitations:

Both Bing Chat Enterprise and ChatGPT come with their own set of challenges and limitations. For instance, Bing Chat Enterprise’s character limit can sometimes restrain the amount of data that can be entered or received, which has proven to be a hindrance on occasion. Additionally, it may stop responding if it comes across confusing or confrontational queries, and it seems to steer clear of offering subjective opinions or getting into heated debates.

On the other hand, some users of ChatGPT have reported a decline in accuracy with recent updates.  However, we remain optimistic that OpenAI will address and resolve these matters in the near future. This observation illustrates the importance of staying aware of updates and understanding their potential impact on the tool’s performance.

Summarising:

In our evaluation, ChatGPT seems to outshine Bing Chat Enterprise in several areas. Its interface is clean and straightforward, and it offers handy features like history tracking (when enabled), efficient handling of tables and spreadsheets, and a robust character limit for data input. With third-party tools, this limit can even be extended. Additionally, expanding features like document uploading (though with mixed success) and the custom instructions feature for specific formatting make it quite versatile.

Bing Chat Enterprise is not without its merits. It’s a feature-rich platform, offering various styles and ways to interact with the language model. What sets it apart is its ability to pull information from multiple online sources to provide comprehensive answers. It also assists with different writing tasks, although its interface might be seen as less user-friendly compared to ChatGPT’s simpler design. A significant advantage of Bing is its real-time internet connection, enabling up-to-date information retrieval, whereas ChatGPT relies on data only up until late 2021.

The choice between ChatGPT and Bing Chat Enterprise ultimately boils down to individual or organizational needs. If privacy and security are paramount, Bing’s private or corporate mode may be essential. If high-quality content generation is the priority, ChatGPT might be the better option. Both platforms come with unique strengths and weaknesses, so careful consideration should be given to align with your specific requirements and preferences.

Also, Microsoft Co-Pilot:

One final point to consider is that Bing Chat Enterprise offers a gateway or introduction to Co-Pilot, Microsoft’s upcoming AI-assistant that will integrate with Office products and Microsoft 365. We believe that Co-Pilot is a game-changer for productivity and that using Bing Chat Enterprise will be an extension and may be valuable for getting familiar with it. However, we also acknowledge that Co-Pilot may need some time to find its wings and overcome some of the challenges we have faced with Bing Chat Enterprise. 

Finally, did we have some assistance writing this with AI language models? Just a little!