In the ultramodern age of online communication, where people are looking for more efficient ways to connect with each other and automate mundane tasks, the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools comes in handy. Generative AI tools are powered by machine learning (ML) technology and sophisticated algorithms to help with specific tasks.
Both ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot (not to be confused with GitHub Copilot) use neural machine translation techniques to translate human language to machine language, generating human-like responses that are engaging and interesting to read.
Despite their utility, determining which of these is the best AI platform for your needs can be tricky. In this article, we’ll examine two of the most popular generative AI platforms, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, to help you make an informed decision.
What is ChatGPT?
Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot specifically built for discussions and task-oriented conversations. Unlike traditional chatbots that generate rigid and scripted responses, ChatGPT can generate highly diverse and natural-sounding responses relevant to users’ conversations. Built by OpenAI, the system is operated by a large language model trained on a vast dataset, allowing for more sophisticated human conversations.
The potential of ChatGPT is vast, with its ability to understand and adapt to each user’s input. Its ability to generate AI-based conversations makes it increasingly popular for enterprise and consumer use.
Developers can use ChatGPT to create conversational experiences tailored to their needs, making them more efficient and productive. ChatGPT can use the latest natural language AI technology to help organizations create more engaging customer experiences.
Over the years, OpenAI has developed language-learning models (LLMs) that can be used to create advanced chatbots and language interaction systems. The company has also introduced different versions of ChatGPT. Its subscription plan, ChatGPT Plus, provides access to the latest GPT-4 and ChatGPT-4o models, which can offer significant advantages over the free version of ChatGPT.
However, with the recent rollout of GPT-4o, many of the advantages previously only available to paid ChatGPT Plus subscribers are now available to free users, including access to custom GPT bots and advanced data analysis tools.
Depending on your needs, a subscription may still be worth the cost. ChatGPT Plus users benefit from a higher usage limit, early access to new features, and the ability to create images (using OpenAI’s DALL-E image generator), interactive charts, and tables.
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Launched in November 2023, Microsoft Copilot provides users with interactive and conversational experiences while integrating seamlessly with Microsoft’s suite of services. Copilot uses Microsoft’s own large language model called Prometheus, which was built upon OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 foundation but fine-tuned by Microsoft for specific functionalities.
The platform operates on the Microsoft Bot Framework, a suite of libraries and AI tools for building, testing, and deploying software. This framework also ensures developers can integrate Copilot with various Microsoft services, including Microsoft Teams, Azure, and Power Virtual Agents.
Copilot harnesses Microsoft’s vast knowledge base and search engine capabilities to offer users comprehensive and accurate information. It uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) to analyze and understand user queries before providing relevant responses.
Like ChatGPT, Copilot is available in free and paid versions. While both offer access to a powerful AI assistant, their feature sets cater to different user needs.
The three AI tools under the Copilot umbrella are:
- Copilot (formerly Bing Chat). This standalone AI chatbot is similar to ChatGPT, offering text generation and web information retrieval with Bing integration.
- Copilot Pro. This paid subscription offers a standalone version with enhanced capabilities compared to the free tier, including increased access to GPT-4 (Open AI’s large language model) and additional features like custom instructions and advanced data analysis.
- Copilot for Microsoft 365. This paid subscription service integrates directly with the Microsoft 365 suite of applications (Word, Excel, etc.). By leveraging user data from Microsoft Graph (emails, documents, etc.), Copilot 365 personalizes the experience and offers features like context-aware suggestions, automated tasks, and data analysis. It even generates images and handles voice searches, making it a versatile business tool within the Microsoft ecosystem.
The free version (Copilot) is a good option for casual users who don’t need Microsoft 365 integration and have modest image generation needs (this functionality can vary with the free version.) The paid versions are ideal for those who heavily rely on Microsoft 365, need to generate a lot of images, or want to create custom chatbots.
What can you do with ChatGPT and Copilot?
As AI chatbots, ChatGPT and Copilot support a wide range of functionalities. They can assist users with tasks like answering questions, providing recommendations, offering customer support, and facilitating transactions.
Their chatbot functions maintain a user-friendly and personalized experience by understanding context, user preferences, and historical interactions.
Both tools also make great coding assistants. Programmers can use ChatGPT’s and Copilot’s APIs to do various coding tasks using a variety of programming languages such as Python, and integrate advanced AI capabilities into their applications.
These users can get automated code suggestions and real-time problem-solving assistance for things like code generation and software development.
Below are the most common ways to use ChatGPT and Copilot.
Customer support
Integrating ChatGPT or Copilot into your customer support systems can help you provide support information, troubleshoot common problems, and offer guidance in a conversational manner. Based on how you set up your systems, they can escalate complex issues to human agents when necessary.
Information retrieval
ChatGPT excels at retrieving information from a vast corpus of text and can provide detailed explanations, answer factual questions, and provide insights on a wide range of topics. Similarly, Copilot can be helpful when researching topics to find essential resources from various web pages, which will typically require less time than traditional search.
Marketing and sales
Both ChatGPT and Copilot are useful for creating emails, sales pitches, marketing copy, and conversational scripts. These tools can also generate images, which means marketing teams can use them to get inspiration for their product and marketing designs.
Language translation
Copilot and ChatGPT have robust libraries of compatible languages. These chatbots can assist with language translation, allowing users to input text in one language and receive the translated version in real time.
Key differences between ChatGPT and Copilot
The section below provides an in-depth overview of the key differences between ChatGPT and its alternative, Copilot.
Development and background
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory based in San Francisco that launched ChatGPT in November 2022. The history of ChatGPT dates back to 2018, when OpenAI introduced its first generative pretrained transformer (GPT) model. The model could generate human-like responses to regular questions and keep conversations going.
The team upgraded the flagship model (GPT-3) in March 2022, and the GPT-3.5 upgrade came out in November 2022. Open AI trained the GPT-3.5 iteration using data from 2021 or earlier, and it’s the model used for the free ChatGPT web interface available today.
In March 2023, OpenAI launched GPT-4, a significant upgrade featuring enhanced multimodal capabilities. It can process both text and image inputs. GPT-4 is available through the paid ChatGPT Plus and OpenAI’s API.
The latest iteration, GPT-4o, released in 2024, further improves these capabilities by offering faster processing, a better understanding of images, and the ability to support real-time voice and video interactions.
On the other hand, the Copilot platform integrates with the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and the Bing search engine, giving it access to vast and up-to-date information. Copilot also operates using the GPT-4 model, which helps it understand and address users’ intent and increases its accuracy.
Features and capabilities
Both ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot are advanced AI tools designed to enhance productivity and creativity. OpenAI’s ChatGPT excels at generating human-like text for creative tasks like essays, poems, or code. It functions as a standalone tool with API integrations and shines in conversation, understanding context and adapting its style accordingly.
While both ChatGPT and Copilot utilize AI and large language models, their focus and integration differ. ChatGPT prioritizes creative text generation and conversation, while Microsoft Copilot (in its various forms) emphasizes user needs and workflow. The free version acts as a standalone chatbot, Copilot Pro offers an enhanced standalone experience, and Copilot for Microsoft 365 provides deeper integration and personalization within Microsoft 365.
Language understanding and context handling
ChatGPT demonstrates strong language understanding and excels at generating coherent responses. The model (named “GPT” for “generative pretrained transformer”) uses various natural language processing techniques to track word sequence in a sentence and predict the context. This helps ChatGPT interpret a conversation’s context and maintain longer dialogues.
However, while ChatGPT’s answers may sound plausible, they can be outdated. At the same time, ChatGPT can be verbose, rephrasing the same ideas repeatedly. Such challenges arise because Open AI built ChatGPT to provide longer answers, and it can sometimes have limited knowledge about the query.
Users should also be aware of AI hallucinations—instances where AI models, such as ChatGPT or Copilot, generate fabricated information that appears factual and authoritative. These models can produce content that seems reliable and factual, even though it’s not grounded in reality. This phenomenon raises concerns about the potential for AI systems to disseminate misinformation or deceive users by presenting fabricated information as if it were true.
Both Copilot and ChatGPT can attempt to understand ambiguous user queries. However, due to its focus on accurate information and task assistance, Copilot might be more likely to ask clarifying questions to ensure it provides the most relevant response.
Customization and integration
ChatGPT is an open-source platform, meaning developers can access its source code and improve its functionality. This gives developers more operational freedom, allowing them to customize, modify, and integrate ChatGPT into their applications.
Developers can fine-tune the base AI model specifically for their needs. This ensures the chatbot’s functionality perfectly suits the application. Developers can also connect ChatGPT to the back end of their chatbot to extend its capabilities.
Conversely, developers can quickly connect Copilot with various Microsoft services and tools. This allows for effortless connection to and integration of other applications.
So, while Copilot excels in seamless Microsoft integration, ChatGPT offers greater developer control through custom fine-tuning and back-end connections, allowing for highly specialized chatbot functionalities.
Availability and scalability
OpenAI provides access to ChatGPT through a web interface that’s compatible with various browsers. To make ChatGPT more accessible, OpenAI also offers an app version for iOS and Android devices.
In its early days, users had to join a waitlist to gain access to the new Copilot. Now, Copilot is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices via the Bing and Microsoft Edge browsers.
ChatGPT’s open-source nature might appeal more to highly customized and niche applications. But when it comes to large-scale deployments, Copilot’s tight integration with Microsoft Azure offers significant scalability advantages.
Cost
ChatGPT offers two pricing tiers: a free version and a subscription model called ChatGPT Plus. To unlock advanced capabilities and access to the latest models, users must subscribe to ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20 per user per month.
Microsoft Copilot is available in both free and paid versions. The free version offers a powerful AI assistant capable of handling basic tasks, suitable for casual users who don’t need deep integration with Microsoft 365 or extensive image generation capabilities.
Others may prefer the paid version, Copilot Pro, which costs $20 per user per month for more advanced features, or Copilot for Microsoft 365, which integrates with Microsoft’s suite of applications for $30 per user per month.
Should you use ChatGPT or Copilot?
ChatGPT and Copilot are two popular options on the market, but your preferred platform should depend on the specific features you want (especially when building your online customer service operations).
Let’s take a look into the performance, user experience, security features, and task specificity of each type of chatbot to help you decide which would best fit your organization.
Performance and accuracy
If you value the most advanced features, free (limited) access to a powerful model (GPT-4o), and widespread popularity, then ChatGPT might be the better option. However, its free version has limitations.
Copilot offers a completely free way to access GPT-4 but with limitations on responses and prompts. It shines in visual features and information retrieval from the web. However, its user interface is less sleek, and it might stall or miss prompts compared to ChatGPT.
Overall, for the most advanced capabilities and a user-friendly interface, especially if you’re willing to pay for a Plus subscription, ChatGPT seems to have the edge in overall performance. But if you prioritize completely free access to GPT-4 and don’t mind limitations or a less polished interface, Copilot could be a viable choice.
Regarding information accuracy, both tools rely on Bing search results. The accuracy of the information ultimately depends on the quality of the search results retrieved. However, ChatGPT’s training focuses on broader communication and sometimes might prioritize fluency over absolute accuracy. Copilot might be more finely tuned to prioritize factual accuracy.
User experience and conversational abilities
Both Microsoft’s Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT provide excellent user experience, as they are both easy to use. Because of its integration with other Microsoft applications and included voice search features, Copilot beats ChatGPT to provide a better user experience—but you may need the paid version for these results.
While ChatGPT responses indicate that it understands user intent and emotion, Copilot also has good recognition capabilities.
Compliance and security
Both ChatGPT and Copilot offer features designed to protect user data, but it’s important to remember that no system is entirely foolproof. Data breaches and unauthorized access are potential risks associated with storing any information electronically, including within AI platforms. Users should exercise caution when sharing personal information with any AI tool or chatbot.
Task needs
Choosing between ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot depends largely on the specific tasks you need to accomplish.
ChatGPT
- Customer engagement. ChatGPT is ideal if your focus is to build long-term relationships with customers through excellent customer support service. It’s designed for ongoing conversations and deep customer engagement.
- Creative content. ChatGPT’s versatility in content creation and language generation makes it a strong choice if your tasks involve generating creative content, such as marketing materials, social media posts, or detailed responses.
- Customization. For developers needing a highly customizable AI assistant that can be fine-tuned for specific applications, ChatGPT’s API and open-source platform provide significant flexibility.
Microsoft Copilot
- Productivity and task automation. Copilot excels in automating repetitive tasks within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem (if you opt to pay for Copilot for Microsoft 365). This is designed for shorter, task-oriented interactions, such as scheduling meetings, drafting emails, and creating reports.
- Seamless integration. For users deeply embedded in the Microsoft 365 environment, Copilot for Microsoft 365 offers seamless integration with applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, enhancing productivity by providing context-aware assistance and personalized recommendations.
Here you can learn more about the growth of AI, how new technologies are impacting the labor market, and key ways AI can maximize human potential and business outcomes in a variety of job functions.
To summarize, ChatGPT is the better choice for tasks requiring extensive conversation, creativity, and customization. Microsoft Copilot is ideal for task-specific needs within the Microsoft ecosystem, focusing on productivity and efficient information handling. However, these features that set Copilot apart from ChatGPT may require one of their paid subscription tiers, whereas ChatGPT offers many robust features for free.
This article originally appeared on Upwork.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org
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13 Ways To Use AI To Become a Better Writer
Everywhere you turn, artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic—on social media, the news, and even at work.
A lot of these discussions include talking about AI for writers—both how writers use AI, and whether or not the technology will reduce the need for human-crafted content over time. If you’re a content writer or a creative writer, you might be wondering what the rise of AI means for your livelihood.
Will AI eventually replace human writers? Do we need to fear it? Or is AI a tool that can help anyone become a better writer … even folks who already write for a living?
The answer is nuanced, but ultimately, it all comes down to one thing: recognizing that AI writing software is just a tool—and that you’re in control of how you use it.
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Because developers trained ChatGPT and similar generative AI tools on large portions of the internet, they can be a great source of article ideas.
These aren’t new ideas—they’re probabilistic sentences that draw upon existing content—but they can get your own creative juices flowing.
Rather than saying “give me five ideas for an article about email marketing,” you can improve results by giving the AI additional context about who your audience is and how you plan to write the article.
The AI tool can then use these data points to improve its predictions and come up with ideas you can use as a jumping-off point during the text generation process.
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While AI writing tools can hallucinate, or provide answers that aren’t factually accurate, they’re still a useful partner when it comes to sifting through your research. Once you locate text sources, such as webpages and PDF documents, upload them to your chat tool of choice and start asking the AI questions about the docs.
ChatGPT, Claude, and similar tools can:
- Summarize multi-page PDFs
- Extract data
- Answer your questions about uploaded files
OpenAI even has “data analyst” and “document assistant” GPTs available to help make this process even easier. You can find them by logging in to your ChatGPT account and clicking “Explore GPTs” in the left sidebar.
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AI copywriting tools can also help you self-edit your work, which can boost your grammar and writing skills.
You can get editing and review help from AI in three notable ways:
- Engage in an ongoing conversation with a generative AI tool like ChatGPT or Claude. Because these tools keep your conversation history, you can use the same chat thread from initial ideation all the way through final review. This way, the AI has solid context around what you’re writing, its tone, and how it should sound.
- Start a quick conversation with your generative AI tool of choice and ask it to parse a sentence, act as a grammar checker, or provide dictionary and thesaurus results.
- Build a custom GPT (this requires a paid ChatGPT Plus account) and tell it to look for your most common mistakes, errors, or words you don’t want to use.
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Even though you may have been working as a writer for the better part of two decades, I still get stuck when it comes time to write a catchy heading. For whatever reason, I’ve always found this to be one of the hardest parts of my job.
AI writing tools can help with this. While I don’t use the AI’s outputs directly, seeing lots of options and versions can help me get closer to my own final copy.
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Once you’ve figured out what topic you plan to write about—or even have a headline ready to go—you can then ask an AI writing tool to generate an outline.
You can also ask the AI to expand on an existing outline and add more details—and even references, if your tool of choice connects to the internet.
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Generative AI can even help you better understand the topics you’re writing about, especially if the tool you’re using is connected to the internet. In this way, it functions similarly to a search engine—but one that can create a summary of the results.
All you need to do is type your question into a new chat with the AI and begin “discussing” all of your related questions.
You can even ask it to do tasks you don’t know how to complete, such as creating an example code block for an article.
That said, remember that when an AI tool doesn’t connect to the internet, its “knowledge” only goes up to the point at which its training data ends. In Claude 3, for example, this cutoff is August 2023.
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If you’re a writer who’s responsible for creating lots of different kinds of copy—from long-form guides to email headlines—you know how time-consuming it can be to create every asset you need.
AI writing tools make this process easier. I find that it makes the most sense to start by creating the longest piece of content first (either by yourself or with the help of an AI writing software tool) and then ask AI to help you break it down into shorter things like:
- Instagram captions
- YouTube scripts
- LinkedIn posts
- Email newsletters
This is where a tool like Jasper comes in particularly handy, as it’s already trained on common content structures and formats. You can still do this with a tool like ChatGPT, though—you just need to be very specific about what you want, and give the AI some examples.
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If you repeat the same time-consuming tasks over and over as part of your work, you may be able to use AI to speed up the process.
As a writer, you may ask AI to do things like:
- Create a content brief template you can use for all of your projects
- Draft the template for a weekly client update email or Slack message
- Write the copy to explain various metrics you’ll include in a report
You can take the core functionality of a tool like ChatGPT further by building custom GPTs or using custom prompts developed by a machine learning pro or prompt engineer.
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Besides reformatting your content for different media or channels, you can also use AI to help you localize your writing.
If you or your clients have a global audience, localization can help you better connect with readers, customers, and users in a variety of countries.
Localization may look like asking a generative AI tool to:
- Update a document from British English spelling to American English
- Replace all dollar amounts listed in an article with the equivalent amount in euros
- Replacing an FAQ section with new questions specific to a new country
- Edit your document for the correct grammar, slang, and spelling used by speakers of a particular dialect
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AI tools aren’t just useful for content marketing—they can help in the creative writing process, too.
One great way to use generative AI in your creative work is to ask it for help with creating character profiles.
Whether you’ve got some loose notes on a character that you’d like to solidify into a profile, or you’re completely starting from a blank slate, a tool like ChatGPT can help you work through the ideation process.
For example, you could ask the AI to take your notes on a character idea and turn it into a full-fledged profile, complete with family tree and physical description.
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You can also use generative Al to simulate dialogue. This can be helpful from a creative perspective and a marketing one.
For example, you could ask ChatGPT to create a conversation between two personas that represent your target audience—and then turn the output into a short commercial.
If you’re writing creatively, you could ask an AI text generator to develop an example of a conversation between two fictional characters. This can be helpful if you’re experiencing writer’s block when it comes time to write an important conversation in a story.
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You can use AI to boost your writing in ways that don’t even involve words, too. If you have a great blog post that you’re ready to publish, but aren’t finding the right stock image, you can explore using AI. A number of AI writing tools—including Jasper, Gemini, and ChatGPT—have the ability to generate images.
Once you know how to prompt an AI image generator, you can create all kinds of graphics—including ones that are sized for social media posts, blog headers, and more.
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AI writing assistants can also give you feedback on your writing quality, readability, search engine optimization (SEO), and more. Purpose-specific tools can be helpful here. If you write a lot of SEO content, you may find that a tool like Clearscope or Surfer (which integrates with Jasper) gives you the most detailed feedback.
Creative writers might like ProWritingAid, as its analysis compares their writing to a favorite author’s— and provides feedback on things like plot structure and pacing.
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Featured Image Credit: artiemedvedev/Istockphoto.
