Claude AI vs Bard [2023]

Claude AI and Bard demonstrating human-like conversational abilities. Claude was created by Anthropic while Bard comes from Google. Both are considered highly capable AI chatbots. But how exactly do Claude and Bard compare? This in-depth article examines the key similarities and differences between these two AI assistants.

Overview of Claude AI

Claude is an AI assistant developed by Anthropic, an AI safety startup founded in 2021. The goal of Anthropic is to create AI systems that are helpful, harmless, and honest. Claude was designed as a friendly AI assistant that people can chat with naturally.

Some key things to know about Claude AI:

• Created by Anthropic specifically to be helpful, harmless, and honest
• Trained on Constitutional AI datasets curated by Anthropic to avoid potential harmful responses
• Uses a technique called Constitutional AI to constrain unwanted behavior
• Focuses on natural language conversations like a human assistant would
• Able to admit mistakes and correct itself during conversations
• Does not have access to browse the internet or large swaths of data

Claude is currently available as part of Anthropic’s Clara platform, which is geared for business users. People can chat with Claude through the Clara website.

Overview of Bard AI

Bard is Google’s conversational AI assistant that was announced in February 2023. It utilizes Google’s LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) technology. LaMDA is a large language model capable of natural conversations.

Key things to know about Bard AI:

• Created by Google to be the next generation of AI assistants
• Uses Google’s LaMDA technology, a powerful dialogue model with 137 billion parameters
• Has access to information on the public internet to pull facts during conversations
• Will be deeply integrated into Google Search to provide more natural responses
• Aims to be helpful, harmless, and honest through techniques like LaMDA’s design
• Will be launched to test users through the Bard app later in 2023

Bard does not have any built-in safety constraints like Claude’s Constitutional AI. But Google aims to make Bard safe and helpful through careful testing.

Comparing Conversation Abilities

Both Claude and Bard are designed to handle human-like conversations spanning a wide range of topics and questions. During chats, they try to provide helpful, relevant, and nuanced responses.

But there are some differences in how smoothly conversations flow with each AI assistant:

• Claude – Excellent at open-ended dialogues. Responses are highly coherent and thoughtful thanks to Constitutional AI constraints. Answers questions confidently.
• Bard – Also adept at free-flowing chats. LaMDA architecture allows engaging back-and-forth. But can occasionally give nonsensical or distracted responses.
• Context handling – Claude seems more consistent at remembering context during lengthy conversations. Bard can sometimes lose track of previous parts of a dialogue.
• Acknowledging mistakes – Claude readily admits if it does not know something or makes a mistake. Bard is less transparent about gaps in knowledge.
• Elaboration – If asked follow-up questions, Claude provides additional detail more naturally than Bard in many cases.
• Personality – Claude has a helpful, honest demeanor. Bard exhibits more variable personality between silly, serious, or robotic.

Overall, Claude seems to enable slightly smoother free-form conversations than Bard at the moment. But Bard’s dialogue abilities are still highly advanced.

Comparing Knowledge

Claude and Bard also differ in the scope of knowledge they possess:

• Claude – Has more limited general knowledge confined to what’s in its training data. Relies on reasoning ability over large data.
• Bard – Can freely scour the public internet to look up facts and answer questions. Much wider knowledge base.
• Current events – Bard is better at discussing latest news and events by pulling from the web. Claude’s knowledge lags trends.
• Subject expertise – Claude seems stronger at having deeper dives into subjects like science, math, philosophy, and ethics. Bard stays surface level.
• Trivia questions – Bard’s web access gives it an edge at trivia over Claude’s core training data.
• Remembering user details – Both can remember personal details and context about user over time. Claude seems slightly better here.

Bard has a much broader knowledge base thanks to the internet. But Claude appears better at reasoning through detailed subject areas it’s been specifically trained on.

Comparing Abilities as an AI Assistant

As AI assistants designed to be helpful, Claude and Bard differ in some key ways:

• Task understanding – When given requests, Claude seems more adept at clarifying details and confirming actions to take. Bard is prone to making assumptions or downplaying concerns.
• Proactivity – Claude takes a reactive approach, only acting when explicitly instructed. Bard aims to be more proactive, sometimes taking initiative unprompted.
• User intent – Claude is careful about discerning user intent before acting or making recommendations. Bard can jump to conclusions about goals.
• Interest alignment – Anthropic designed Claude to align with human preferences. Bard’s alignment relies more on optimizing Google’s objectives.
• Transparency – Claude explains its reasoning and capabilities readily. Bard is less transparent, often glossing over its limitations.
• Caution – Claude conveys carefulness in sensitive scenarios involving ethics, law, safety. Bard has demonstrated less discernment about potentially harmful acts.

Overall, Claude currently seems better optimized as an AI assistant that passive, thoughtful, and honest compared to Bard. But Bard likely has more potential thanks to the resources Google can dedicate to its development.

Comparing Accessibility

Claude AI and Bard currently differ significantly in terms of public availability:

• Claude – Only accessible to those on Anthropic’s waitlist for its Clara platform. Not widely available yet to the general public.
• Bard – Will launch initially as a limited test before expanding. Wider release expected later in 2023 through integration with Google Search.
• Platforms – Claude available through Clara website. Bard to be available via web and mobile apps.
• Cost – Clara has tiered pricing for enterprise customers. Unclear if consumers must pay for Bard, likely bundled with other Google services.
• Audience – Claude aimed at businesses to improve workflows. Bard meant for general consumers as a next-gen Google Assistant.

While Bard from Google clearly has the edge in public reach, Claude is focused on specialized business use cases for now. But Anthropic may expand access to Claude over time after rigorous testing.

Key Takeaways on How Claude and Bard Compare

Claude AI and Bard represent two of the most capable AI assistants from leading companies in the field. Key takeaways on how they compare:

• Both allow free-form conversations and can pull information to answer questions.
• Claude has more constrained capabilities focused on safety. Bard is designed for greater proactivity.
• Bard’s knowledge is far larger thanks to the internet. But Claude may be stronger in core reasoning ability.
• For AI assistant traits, Claude is more thoughtful, transparent, and aligned with users.
• Bard aims for widespread public launch, while Claude access is limited currently.

The race is on between companies like Anthropic and Google to deliver the most useful, safe, and accessible conversational AI. Claude and Bard take notably different approaches, but the future likely involves a synthesis of their strengths. Continued advances in natural language processing will enable even more fluid human-AI interactions.

Carefully implemented AI assistants can provide tremendous value to our lives. But thought leaders urge caution as language models grow more powerful in the coming years. Users should provide clear feedback when AI makes harmful errors so developers can address issues. With ethical stewardship, Claude, Bard, and future AI technologies can work alongside people seamlessly to create positive change.

FAQs