Chat GPT has set the internet on fire since its introduction. The chatbot has certainly given a shake-up to the way people think about AI. OpenAI, the group that develops Chat GPT, is currently in the process of rolling out Chat GPT-4. So, how does it stack up against its predecessor, the popular Chat GPT-3, in a Chat GPT-3 vs 4 comparison?
There are numerous improvements and changes to the AI chatbot, which is the purpose of today’s guide. Chat GPT looks to be here to stay, and as people and organizations grow to embrace the technology, it is certainly worth investigating further.
Let’s take a look at how these two models differ, what improvements have been made, and whether it is worth your time.
Chat GPT-3 vs. 4: Side-by-Side Comparison
| Chat GPT-4 | Chat GPT-3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid or free access? | Paid | Free |
| Responds to malicious requests | Some, but more often opts for fact-based answers | Quite easy to trick |
| Word limit for inputs | 25,000 words | 3,000 words |
| Data set recency | September 2021 | June 2021 |
| Image recognition | Yes | No |
| Date of introduction | March 2023 | November 2022 |
Chat GPT-3 vs. 4: What’s the Difference?
Both of these AI chatbots have seen widespread use across a variety of industries. Thanks to investment from companies like Microsoft, OpenAI seems poised to make a huge impact. There are some noticeable differences between the two, however.
Processing
Chat GPT-3 can process up to 3,000 words at a time. This is good for providing quick summaries to texts, or for having detailed prompts. However, the chatbot reaches its upper limits quite quickly, which can lead to less factual responses.
For those with accessibility needs, Chat GPT-3 has no support for image recognition. Given that the basic Chat GPT-3 client interface is available for free users, it makes some degree of sense that some of the newer features present aren’t in the open-access version.
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Chat GPT-4, by comparison, can process up to 25,000 words at a time. This, coupled with the greatly improved memory, leads to more accurate and detailed responses. You can certainly input some finely-tuned prompts to get the sort of response you need.
Chat GPT-4 also has support for image recognition, which puts it well ahead of Chat GPT-3. The trade-off, of course, is that Chat GPT-4 is only available for people using the paid subscription to access the most recent chatbot.
Accuracy
Chat GPT-3 is quite easy to trick. OpenAI’s last chatbot is more likely to respond to malicious requests or, in some cases, just provide the wrong sort of information. This isn’t necessarily a problem for those who are experts in their field and are relying on Chat GPT-3 in a professional capacity.
For students who might be using it as an ill-advised means of generating a school paper, however, it might prove to be a problem. There is also the fact that Chat GPT-3 is using an older set of training data. At its most recent update, Chat GPT-3’s training data is from June 2021.
Chat GPT-4 has been trained to recognize malicious responses and is far less likely to respond to them. Answers are more fact-based by design and are far more concise and accurate. It uses an older data set, though it is more recent than Chat GPT-3’s.
Given OpenAI’s track record of providing regular updates behind the scenes, you can certainly expect more recent training data to come as needed. Currently, Chat GPT-4 is in its introductory rollout, so we can imagine that things will be updated per customer feedback as time goes on.
Availability and Pricing
Chat GPT-3 is available with limited slots. What this entails is that despite relatively high availability on the free tier, you aren’t getting priority access when accessing Chat GPT-3 as a free user. If you’re just someone messing around with AI for fun, then this isn’t a huge deal.
For those already employing AI in their workplace, however, having limited availability might be a bit of a hindrance. Access to Chat GPT-3 is only provided at the free tier and serves as the basic starter for anyone interested in the chatbot.
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Chat GPT-4 is available with higher priority, but you’ll need to subscribe monthly. The pricing for the monthly subscription is $20 a month, which is quite minimal for any organization using Chat GPT-4 in a professional capacity.
The paid subscription affords you higher availability, meaning you’ll be more likely to successfully connect to a session even during high-traffic peak hours.
Coherency and Creativity
While many in professional fields are using Chat GPT as a means of content creation, there has been a certain lack of creativity in how it composes things. Chat GPT-3 shows this quite readily, as it writes adequately, but lacks overall coherency.
You could certainly use Chat GPT-3 as a content creation tool, especially for things like ad copy or blog posts. It lacks a human touch, so to speak, so it might be readily apparent that you’re using AI to generate content.
Chat GPT-4 has taken great strides in improving overall coherency and creativity. There is a certain flow to writing in any language, and Chat GPT-4 captures more of that when prompted. Some users have even used Chat GPT-4 to generate short stories, poems, and other creative works with a great deal of success.
What this means for future content generation only promises more overall coherency and creativity. At this early stage, if it is already capable of creating short stories, more refined training data could very easily lead to the chatbot exhibiting greater similarity to human creativity.
This increase in creativity and coherency also leads to Chat GPT-4 being more capable of logically reasoning things out. Certain inputs can allow the chatbot to give concise and well-reasoned answers, rather than leave it spitting out inaccurate results the way Chat GPT-3 often does.
Chat GPT-3 vs. 4: 6 Must-Know Facts
- Chat GPT-4 is the most advanced AI language model to date from OpenAI.
- Chat GPT-4 is only available on the paid tier for OpenAI accounts.
- Chat GPT-4 is the most accurate AI language.
- Chat GPT-3 drives more internet traffic than Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
- Chat GPT-3 has led to the creation of AI detectors for academic work.
- Chat GPT-3 is not foolproof when trying to get logical responses.
Chat GPT-3 vs. 4: Which One Is Better?
Given the improvements to the language model of Chat GPT-4, it is a massive leap forward. The only reason users would continue using Chat GPT-3 is wanting to do it on a hobbyist basis. Those working with AI professionally, whether it be for summaries, fact-checking, or content creation, can only benefit from migrating to the latest version of OpenAI’s chatbot.
AI has made a huge splash in a lot of professional fields, and OpenAI looks ready to embrace these advances. One thing is certain: Chat GPT-4 will continue to improve while Chat GPT-3 will serve as a wonderful introduction to using AI for those on the fence about it.
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