文心一言 For companies and organizations as well as individuals, how should one choose among ChatGPT, ERNIE Bot, and Gemini?

Choosing which company’s AI bot to use is not a minor topic, nor a simple decision. The impact behind it is very large. AI will play a huge role in every industry and will become a major force in every field. Learning to use it and developing it both require enormous investment. If at some point in the process you feel it is not good, all your previous efforts may be wasted, so this is a matter that requires caution.

Let us first discuss the characteristics of the bots from these companies respectively, and then analyze the pros and cons, so that we can better judge and choose.

[baike]Features of Baidu ERNIE Bot[/baike]
Ease of use: The UI follows familiar conventions, and the Chinese-language interface suits ordinary users.
Communication and comprehension: It has Chinese-language characteristics and is oriented toward Chinese users, but communication is still laborious. For more awkwardly phrased questions it is inferior to ChatGPT, and its understanding and reasoning are poor.
Network restrictions: No network restrictions; registration and use are simple.
Basic features: Too few. What it can do, the others can basically do too; what others can do, it basically cannot.
Basic capabilities: On some simple reasoning and logic, its capabilities are the same as other AI bots.
Cost of use: Not expensive; relatively cheap.
R&D team: I cannot be bothered to say more; you have probably heard about their reputation.
Knowledge base: Poor. Simply put, in clashes of knowledge it cannot beat the others.
Number of users: Not over 100 million—probably several tens of millions. Even if there are more now, it will not be much more.
Release date: One year later than ChatGPT. In fact, when WeChat first came out in the 2010s, Mr. Li mentioned AI and said AI was what they were focused on. The result... is so unsatisfactory.
Success stories: Almost none to be seen. I wanted to share some but could not find any.

[baike]Features of ChatGPT[/baike]
Ease of use: The UI follows familiar conventions; it is okay.
Communication and comprehension: It has its own language characteristics and is oriented toward foreigners; it understands English better. Communication is laborious, and you need to learn to use prompts well to use it well.
Network restrictions: There are network restrictions. Registration is simple, but topping up is difficult. It is not that we ban them; it is that they ban us from using it.
Basic features: Strong. In basic features no one can match it; plugins/DALL·E/custom GPTs, etc. are all very practical.
Basic capabilities: Strong.
Cost of use: Expensive.
R&D team: Very strong, fast, and responsive.
Knowledge base: Strong knowledge, long training time, and it knows a great many things—far, far, far more than Baidu.
Number of users: About 2 billion; there are forums and feedback, and it frequently engages with people from all sectors and collects suggestions.
Release date: Early.
Success stories: Very, very many—excellent cases in healthcare, education, law, automobiles, agriculture, machinery, and many more.

[baike]Consider extensibility[/baike] In AI work, ChatGPT is only our first basic tool. To handle complex, multi-process work, ChatGPT often has to work together with other AIs. Many excellent integrated wrapper tools call the ChatGPT API—for example, website creation and comic generation. I have not heard of any cooperating with Baidu AI APIs.

[baike]How should we choose[/baike]ChatGPT has already captured users’ mindshare and has massive support; all kinds of resources and conditions tilt toward it, and it actively interacts with people from all sectors and accepts suggestions. As for Baidu, just try saying one bad thing about it. With over 2 billion users, ChatGPT has excellent cases in every industry. Even ERNIE Bot knows it lags far behind ChatGPT; its attitude is sincere. To put it bluntly, advanced knowledge is all in ChatGPT: what ERNIE Bot has, ChatGPT has; what ChatGPT has, ERNIE Bot may not have.

How to choose still depends on your needs and goals—which one can satisfy your needs and achieve your goals. On this I have some humble opinions; since I do not know much about every industry, I cannot cover everything, so I will give one or two examples for reference.

• Academic sector: ChatGPT first choice
  
• Technology industry: ChatGPT first choice
  
• Design industry: ChatGPT first choice
  
• Media industry: ChatGPT first choice
  
• Education industry: ChatGPT first choice
  
• Manufacturing industry: ChatGPT first choice
  
• Medical industry: develop your own as much as possible
  
• Financial industry: develop your own as much as possible
  
• Scientific research: develop your own as much as possible
  

Other industries that do not involve developing new technologies, do not involve cutting-edge knowledge assistance, and do not require innovation do not need ChatGPT; using Baidu is enough. Sensitive and confidential industries need independent R&D so that foreigners do not steal secrets.

[baike]Paid cost comparison[/baike]
Baidu membership: 50 yuan
Baidu API: about 12 yuan per 1 million Chinese characters
ChatGPT Plus: 140 yuan
ChatGPT API: about 60 yuan per 1 million Chinese characters