ChatGPT vs. Google Search: In Head-to-Head Battle, Which One Is Smarter?

If it feels like all you read about online is AI this and AI that, you’re not alone—even though your elder relatives probably have no idea what it is or why anyone would care. But artificial intelligence—especially the language-learning type, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT—is going to become more and more entrenched with everyday life.

This kind of AI is now built into search engines and web browsers from Microsoft. And Alphabet has announced that very soon, its own language learning AI will hit the Google search engine (which uses plenty of AI for its algorithms already).

Why all the hubbub? Preply(Opens in a new window), an online language learning/tutoring site, showcased exactly why in its new report on whether ChatGPT or Google is smarter. Note that it did all this research in January 2023. The field is moving fast, with announcements flying daily from the big companies. (We wonder if a legless Zuckerberg stuck in the metaverse is worried that he bet on the wrong horse.) Nevertheless, the results Preply found are interesting for anyone following the space—because the clear winner is the technology that has a significant handicap.

To test the two, fA three-person team looked at the results garnered from ChatGPT and Google for each question and rated those responses across a number of characteristics, including whether the answer is clear, the level of detail it contains, and whether the result is actionable. The team even checked responses for impartiality and whether the data included is up to date.

On basic questions, Google bested ChatGPT, winning seven out of the 12 responses:

(Credit: Preply)

For the 21 intermediate questions, Google can’t handle the pressure—it wins only six spots, while ChatGPT wins 15:

(Credit: Preply)

In the seven advanced questions posed to the two services, AI dominates again, winning four:

(Credit: Preply)

The research also took into account the stakes, objectivity, and time sensitivity for each of the 40 questions. ChatGPT won with a majority in almost every case, except for the time-fluid questions, where Google did better.

When it comes to time-sensitive questions, it’s no wonder that ChatGPT would lose—the data set used to train is dated only through 2021. But, as we mentioned above, that handicap didn’t stop it from outperforming the venerable Google search overall.

Unsurprisingly, Alphabet is now pushing hard on the Bard. OpenAI’s abilities are already showing up in previews on Microsoft’s Bing search engine—Microsoft invested early in OpenAI. Also, OpenAI-assisted Bing is not limited to data crawled prior to 2022—it’s fully up to date. It’ll even cite sources, something ChatGPT does not (but should). Nor will it be hampered by OpenAI’s slow servers. All these factors have Alphabet shaken.

For more, including a deep dive into several of the questions posed and their results on each platform, read the full report at Preply(Opens in a new window).