Open AI's ChatGPT has been creating a lot of buzz since it was launched. This conversational chatbot was created using OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model and allows users to converse with the tool by entering prompts.
While initially, people were in awe of its capability, content creators are now not shying away from discussing its limitations on social media.
To understand what people think about this chatbot, we surveyed content marketers and writers on LinkedIn. We asked them how effective they found ChatGPT for their content research process. Interestingly, 82% of the respondents mentioned ChatGPT has limitations to the content research process.
Some of the limitations our surveyors highlighted include the following:
- Trained on data till 2021.
- Generates inaccurate data sometimes.
- Creates content that sort of sounds repetitive.
- Not trustworthy as it doesn’t link back to the original research.
- The model is not able to pull out data while researching a niche topic or something hyperlocal.
- It often comes up with factually incorrect information, which can be a disaster for your content creation process.
- Shows “ChatGPT is at capacity” error frequently as the server often gets overloaded with too many users, and it locks itself out, making it inaccessible from time to time.
Here’s what some of the users have to say!
However, this doesn't mean you can’t use ChatGPT or any conversational AI tools!
While there is a massive potential for AI conversational tools, ChatGPT has its limitations. So, if you’re looking for ChatGPT alternatives that produce similar (or even better!) results, here are six ChatGPT alternatives for research you may want to explore.
6 ChatGPT Alternatives for Research
Research is the first and most important part of the content creation process. And it does not just stop there! Research is everywhere: writing school essays, submitting papers, and starting a new business.
To help you see everything everybody has seen, below is a curated list of the best ChatGPT alternatives for research.
- ChatSonic
- Microsoft Bing AI
- Google’s Bard AI
- YouChat
- Perplexity
- Elicit
Now let's dive deep into each of these ChatGPT alternatives for research.
1. ChatSonic
ChatSonic by Writesonic is the best ChatGPT alternative for research as it is integrated with Google. This means unlike ChatGPT, ChatSonic is equipped to give you the latest results on any search topic that’s available on the internet.
ChatSonic is an advanced AI Chatbot that you can use for research with real-time data, images, and voice searches. The tool helps you with research but also assists you in writing content for various use cases. Let’s look at some of the salient features of ChatSonic and how you can use it for your research and content creation project.
Create factually correct content
ChatSonic is integrated with Google search, which helps to generate accurate and hyper-relevant AI content. So, if you want to create content based on real-time topics, the latest news, or more, you know where to go.
Talk to a personalized avatar
Be it a math teacher, a relationship coach, a comedian, or a dentist, ChatSonic can be anyone you want. You can choose from various personality modes and start chatting! It can be your go-to friend!
Create catchy AI images
The tool can enable you to create high-quality and quality images with a single click, based on two distinct models, i.e., Stable Diffusion and DALL-E, and powered by a sophisticated conversational Artificial Intelligence algorithm. Learn more about how to create AI art with ChatGPT.
Understands voice commands and reads responses
Instead of manually inputting your query, ChatSonic AI bot can comprehend spoken commands and respond accordingly, similar to other virtual assistants like Siri and Google Assistant. This helps conserve time and offers an interactive and conversational experience.
Remembers the conversation
ChatSonic remembers information from prior conversations so you can return to a previous topic without giving the instructions all over again. The ChatSonic AI technology can identify your tone and responds to conversation naturally, giving you a real-time conversation experience. It also lets you edit, share, and download conversations with a click.
ChatSonic Twitter bot for quicker Twitter response
ChatSonic also has a Twitter bot that lets you generate responses from Twitter. Just type in a question, tag ChatSonic, and post your Tweet. And ta-da! Here’s what you asked for.
ChatSonic API for better customer experience
With the ChatSonic API, it’s super easy to link your existing software with ChatSonic. You can integrate the tool with your website or mobile app for a smooth customer experience.
ChatSonic App on your smartphone
Looking to create content on the go? Download the ChatSonic ChatGPT app. It supports all the features that the web app has. No more carrying the laptop everywhere you go!
You can also check out the 10 most popular ChatGPT apps for mobile.
ChatSonic app will soon be launched on the App Store. So, if you are an iOS user, join the waitlist to get early access.
ChatSonic Chrome extension
With the easy ChatSonic chrome extensions, you can use WriteSonic and ChatSonic from anywhere. So whether you’re researching for your latest project or responding to a social media post, you can quickly generate a relevant response from your browser.
Pros
- It knows the latest trends and news, so you get the most accurate results for your queries compared to ChatGPT.
- It has a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy to use.
- The pricing is affordable if you’re looking for a writing assistant.
- ChatSonic helps you to get creative and generate endless ideas —no more writer’s block!
Pricing
Chatsonic offers a free plan with 25 credits and up to 50 generations. If you need more, you can choose a paid plan starting at $12/month, which gives you unlimited words.
2. Microsoft Bing AI
Microsoft integrated ChatGPT into its search engine Bing and released it as Bing AI. It has used the OpenAI’s capability uniquely called the Prometheus model. As a result, this alternative to ChatGPT offers up-to-date and personalized results.
Although users ignored Bing as a search engine for a long time, Bing AI created quite a ripple, as expected. Soon after its launch, many people took to social media to express that this alternative of ChatGPT is more than a word prediction machine. Many users mentioned that it felt like conversing with a real human being. Some of the key features of Bing AI include:
- You can ask queries up to 1000 words.
- It can process complex queries for better results if used for research compared to ChatGPT.
- It shows related results and helps you with follow-up questions if it can’t respond directly to your query.
Here’s an example from a social media user who asked Bing to write an R code for him to analyze some data. Here’s the excerpt of the conversation between the user and Bing AI. The chatbot refused to produce output that might have malicious intent giving a more human-like conversation experience.
Pros
- Good at code
- Uses emojis which is nice to have
- It is somewhat up-to-date and is a good ChatGPT alternative for research. Although it has access to recent news stories, in some cases (for example, the Ukraine conflict), its knowledge goes up to November 2022 only.
- It has a nice UX with suggested links for website sources and suggested follow-up questions. These are helpful additions if you’re using the tool for research.
Cons
- You need to be an EDGE user.
- Conversations usually end after five to six questions.
Overall, it is an AI like ChatGPT with the possibility to get better in the future. However, it’s still in an early stage to declare a verdict.
3. Google’s Bard AI
Bard AI is Google’s response to ChatGPT alternatives. It’s an experimental conversational AI service that uses a deep learning algorithm. This is also known as the “large language model.”
The AI chatbot can respond to questionaries in a text format. Bard is built on the LaMDA technology. It scouts the web to find the most recent answers, unlike ChatGPT, which is fed with data till 2021.
Google Bard is currently available only to “trusted testers” for now. The Bard learns and updates itself through its encounter with a human. Google Bard can be used to get answers to your query and find any information using it as a research assistant.
For example, the Bard can generate a quick report using the search engine if you're looking for a weather report. Google AI powers Bard, automating tasks like restaurant reservations or booking a flight ticket. Google Bard can also work as an AI assistant to help you manage your time.
Pros
- Bard is a Google product, so it’s expected to be integrated with Google Workspace tools like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, etc., making it convenient to manage your work.
- Bard is simple to use, and the interface is quite intuitive.
- You can customize your google based projects and tasks.
Cons
- It doesn't have any resource management capabilities.
- It’s a web-based tool with limited mobile support. So, it’s inconvenient for people who work on the go.
4. YouChat
YouChat is a good ChatGPT alternative for research while giving an everyday experience. The tool is launched by You[dot]com, a search engine. It works pretty much the same as any other generic chatbot. The tool uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to converse naturally like a human being.
YouChat can write codes and emails, translate, summarise texts, and respond to general queries. YouChat is great at answering basic-level queries but may miss out on niche-specific stuff as it’s still learning. All the information the tool provides is not always correct.
Pros
- YouChat presents chat results with citations since it uses the You search engine.
- It’s good for suggesting ideas, summarizing texts, and explaining things.
- The tool is free to use as of now.
Cons
While ChatGPT is trained not to answer potentially harmful questions, YouChat is capable of giving answers to questions that clearly have any wrong intent.
5. Perplexity
Another ChatGPT alternative for research - Perplexity is a recent addition to the conversational AI space. The tool can create content and offer conversational responses.
It is powered by OpenAI models and is capable of generating short conversational responses, just like ChatGPT. The chatbot has a simple interface, so super easy to use. It cites the sources it fetches the responses from.
Pros
It provides references to the results it fetches.
Cons
The chatbot is relatively slow.
Also, check out the best ChatGPT alternatives for productivity.
6. Elicit
Elicit - the upcoming ChatGPT alternative for research! This conversational AI chatbot uses GPT-3 language model. When you type in a prompt, the AI chatbot creates a summary from the highest-rated documents, which works on a literature review model. Elicit is a great ChatGPT alternative, especially for students and researchers who need a quick summary of detailed research reports.
Pros
Elicit is a wonderful bot for students and researchers. It summarizes the publication at a glance, meaning you don't need to review the entire paper to understand whether it's relevant to your study.
Cons
If you modify the search, the previously starred papers won't appear, so you must search again to receive the details.
The best ChatGPT alternative for research...
ChatGPT is a powerful conversational AI chatbot capable of producing great content. However, this market is quickly evolving, and many alternative ChatGPT tools are released every other day. Additionally, the existing tools are evolving, too.
All of the ChatGPT alternatives mentioned above are great for research. However, each has its pros and cons and certain unique features. So you need to do your due diligence to make the right choice that suits your project best.
However, if you’re looking for the best ChatGPT alternative that creates factually correct content in real-time, works on voice command, and creates digital artwork with a click, ChatSonic is the best choice.
To level up your ChatGPT game, here are 110+ best ChatGPT examples and 160+ ChatGPT prompts that you can copy and paste to generate amazing responses quickly.
