Bard Vs. Gemini: What Are the Differences?
Explore a comparison between Gemini and Bard, and see just how advanced Gemini really is.
Key Takeaways
Gemini surpasses Bard in capabilities due to its larger size, multimodal training, and improved architecture.
Gemini excels in factual content generation, code-related tasks, and logical reasoning.
Gemini has better conversational abilities, making communication smoother.
Google product integration sets Gemini apart, offering advantages to existing Google users.
Gemini still lags behind ChatGPT-4 in certain areas, highlighting room for further improvement.
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After ChatGPT was released, Google quickly came out with Bard. Despite the controversial release, Bard performed competitively against ChatGPT. But with OpenAI releasing the paid and much more advanced ChatGPT-4, Google also upgraded Bard’s underlying artificial intelligence model to the more advanced Gemini.
Powered by Gemini Ultra 1.0, Gemini is, in Google’s own words, the company’s most advanced model.
But what makes Gemini better than Bard? In this post, we do a thorough comparison.
Bard and Gemini: Background
Google Bard was released on March 21, 2023. It was powered by the Bard AI models developed by Google DeepMind.
While highly capable across different tasks, Bard’s release was riddled with factual errors and issues. It was also not as capable as ChatGPT, its then-top competitor.
To improve Bard’s functionality, Google updated and powered it with its more powerful Gemini Ultra 1.0 large language model. The rename was to highlight Google’s strategy shift and the wide-scale integration of its AI system.
Currently, any user with a Google account can access Gemini via the phone or web app (https://gemini.google.com/app).
Technical Metrics: A Deeper Dive
Google often releases its language models with limited concrete technical specifications. Based on the information we have, here’s a swift comparison between Gemini and its predecessor:
Model Size: Bard had 137 billion parameters. Gemini is powered by Google Gemini 1.0, which might have more parameters, but the specifics have not been released by Google.
Model Architecture: Google’s Bard used Recurrent Neural Networks primarily, while Gemini has a transformer-based design.
Training Data Size and Diversity: Gemini holds a distinct advantage due to its training on a massive and diverse dataset. This includes text, code, images, and potentially other data types. This multimodal training allows Gemini to understand and process information from different sources. Bard, on the other hand, was primarily focused on text.
Benchmarks: Gemini Ultra was said to have outperformed GPT-4, Anthropic's Claude 2, Inflection AI's Inflection-2, Meta's LLaMA 2, and xAI's Grok 1 on a variety of industry benchmarks. These specifics aren’t available for Gemini Ultra 1.0. Bard was competitive with ChatGPT 3.5 as well.
Logical Reasoning
Gemini's Edge
Multimodal training on diverse datasets likely enhances Gemini's reasoning abilities across different domains of knowledge.
The more advanced architecture of the Pro and Ultra models is designed for handling complex problems and nuanced reasoning.
Bard's Limitations
Traditional language models trained primarily on text have inherent limitations in logical reasoning that require connecting disparate information types. Bard falls into this category.
Coding
Gemini's Strengths
Training on code allows Gemini to understand programming syntax and structure, facilitating tasks like code generation and debugging.
Bard's Potential
Bard's core language skills were valuable in explaining code concepts, commenting code, or even generating basic code snippets if equipped with the right context. It was, however, not as efficient and accurate as Gemini and Gemini Advanced at generating code.
According to Google,
“With our Ultra 1.0 model, Gemini Advanced is far more capable at highly complex tasks like coding, logical reasoning, following nuanced instructions, and collaborating on creative projects. Gemini Advanced not only allows you to have longer, more detailed conversations; it also better understands the context from your previous prompts.”
Gemini vs. ChatGPT
A series of blog posts compared Gemini against ChatGPT and did the same with Bard.
When compared to ChatGPT 3.5, Bard won in the following:
Summarization
Complex content generation (humorous text)
It lost in:
Math
Argument dialog
Factual tasks
Coding.
Gemini wins in the following against ChatGPT 3.5:
Summarization
Math
Factual tasks
Gemini loses in :
Coding
Creative writing
Argument dialog
Complex content generation (humorous text).
These tests allow us to objectively compare Gemini and Bard:
Gemini's Strengths Vs. Bard
Factual Accuracy and Content Generation: Gemini excels in providing concise and informative responses, particularly when handling factual queries. Its access to real-time information and its strength in content generation across text, code, and potentially other modalities give it an edge in delivering accurate and relevant results.
Code Generation and Debugging: Gemini shines in understanding and generating code snippets, as well as assisting with debugging. It performs worse than ChatGPT but better than Bard.
Multimodal Reasoning: Gemini's multimodal training enhances its ability to connect concepts across different domains (images, code, text), giving it an advantage on complex or unusual queries.
Improved Natural Language Understanding: The user can communicate with Gemini without the need for overly precise, technical language. This leads to a smoother, less frustrating experience.
Multi-Domain Reasoning: Gemini seamlessly incorporates information from different sources to provide a comprehensive solution. It's more than just retrieving stored information; it demonstrates understanding and logical analysis.
Human-like Communication: The responses generated feel less robotic and more empathetic.
Forbes also compared Gemini Advanced – the paid and supposedly more capable version of Gemini – to paid ChatGPT-4.
Price: For individuals, both ChatGPT 4 and Gemini Advanced are the same. For $19.99/month, Gemini Advanced also offers access to the Google AI premium plan. This includes 2TB storage in Google Cloud which otherwise costs $9.99/month. Additionally, it integrates with Google’s suite of applications like Docs, Sheets, Gmail, etc. This is absent in ChatGPT-4 subscription, but ChatGPT-4 comes with plugins and an option to customize the bot for different applications.
Performance: Gemini does better in code generation and provides factual, real-time information. In our tests, we also noticed that Gemini is faster than ChatGPT-4. But GPT-4 wins in image generation, logical reasoning, and creative text generation.
ChatGPT-4 is an excellent option if you need more writing/creative text or image generation applications. But Gemini comes with more integrations and increased Google Cloud storage, and may also be a better option for coders.
Gemini Vs Bard: Key Specialities
Google Gemini specializes in content generation. Gemini deftly handles text, crafting anything from blog posts and marketing copy to comprehensive website content and social media blurbs.
Bard focused squarely on improving customer interaction and communication. This conversational strength translated to compelling chatbot solutions in customer service applications.
Where Gemini and Bard Intersect
Traditionally, conversational AI systems often struggled with complex natural language processing. This was true for Bard as well. We saw Bard hallucinating multiple times as queries became more complex. Gemini has enhanced conversational AI potential.
Gemini's superior language understanding and the sophisticated reasoning enabled by the Pro and Ultra models have made it even better at handling queries and basic conversations.
Beyond language understanding, Gemini has better overall reasoning abilities. Gemini's exposure to larger, more complex datasets – including text, code, images, and more – allows it to reason across a wider range of domains.
Gemini can connect the dots between seemingly disparate pieces of information and offer insights that wouldn't be possible with Bard. Gemini has the tools to both 'speak' more like a human and 'think' with greater problem-solving abilities.
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Wrapping Up
The Gemini AI model is very efficient and advanced compared to Bard. It's excellent, especially for content creation and getting up-to-date information. It also has the upper hand on Bard in various other aspects, including multimodality.
However, its subpar performance to ChatGPT demonstrates that Google has a long way to go if it wants the chatbot to win against its competition. Its integration with other Google products will give it an edge in the market, but just how efficient that turns out to be remains to be seen.