by Charles Miller

I have stated many times that ChatGPT is not monolithic. The technology popularized by OpenAI Inc. is available to the general public to test drive using any one of several web sites, and the technology has now been licensed to many other companies, each of which has put their own spin on how to use it in their own operations. To prove that point I decided to ask the exact same question of several of the popular ChatGPT interfaces to see if I could spot where the answers might differ. Overall, when I asked the question "Why is San Miguel de Allende considered the best city in the world to visit?" What I received back from each ChatGPT were similar answers, different in phraseology, but largely the same.

The original ChatGPT by the originating company OpenAI Inc. listed off seven reasons why SMA was the best place in the world to visit. These were rich in history and culture, stunning architecture, art and creativity, pleasant climate, culinary scene, welcoming community, and natural beauty; all in that order.

When I put the exact same question to Microsoft's CoPilot it also listed seven reasons. They were historical and cultural significance, art and creativity, gastronomy, vibrant festivals, warm hospitality, natural beauty, and expat community. Microsoft did not put a lot of emphasis on the climate.

Mistral AI listed seven reasons also. They were colonial architecture, cultural experiences, art scene, culinary delights, welcoming community, climate, and day trips. Mistral singled out the "art scene" while its last reason seemed to imply getting out of town was worth doing.

Meta listed its reasons to visit San Miguel as 16th-century architecture, cultural heritage, expat community, mild climate, natural beauty, then festivals and events. Meta did not focus on the gastronomical scene in SMA as one of its top reasons to visit.

Claude 3 Haiku listed stunning colonial architecture, UNESCO World Heritage Site, vibrant arts and culture, culinary delights, mild climate, and friendly, welcoming community. It was the only ChatGPT to cite UNESCO World Heritage Site as being one of its top reasons to visit.

Perplexity.AI only listed five main reasons in answer to the same question, though that should not be taken to mean the answer was less comprehensive. Its answers cultural and historical significance, culinary excellence, natural beauty and climate, welcoming community, and vibrant arts scene mirrored the others, omitting architecture and festivals from its top reasons though these were addressed further down in the response.

All of the aforementioned implementations of ChatGPT are free to use and do not require you to download or install anything on your computer or smartphone to use. Some astute readers may have noted the omission of Google's popular Gemini version of ChatGPT. In writing this column I have omitted those ChatGPT sites that require a paid subscription or in the case of Gemini require you to log in with your username and password in order for Google to keep up with your chats.

So which website using ChatGPT is the best one? I prefer one that does not require me to break my train of thought by stopping to enter a username and password, but that is just because I am lazy. It is fortunate that there are multiple options from which we may choose, so we can each use the one that best suits our individual needs and the one with which we are most comfortable using.

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Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant with decades of IT experience and a Texan with a lifetime love for Mexico. The opinions expressed are his own. He may be contacted at 415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

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