Welcome to this week’s edition of Architecture Insights. A weekly newsletter on artificial intelligence for architects, landscape architects, and designers.

Last week, Google released a major update to their large language model called Gemini. Gemini, which was formerly known as Bard, has always been considered the top competitor of ChatGPT.

This Week In AI

OpenAI shares a preview of their new video-to-text AI Sora.

It is not yet available to all users and OpenAI only granted access to a select few visual artists, designers, and filmmakers to gain feedback before releasing it to the public. Nevertheless, Sora is a massive improvement in the text-to-video space.

Watch the AI-generated video from the image below.

2. ChatGPT rolls out new memory features.

Their objective is to enable ChatGPT to retain information from previous conversations, thereby reducing the need to repeat information. The initial version of ChatGPT's memory can remember important details as you converse with it, you can also instruct it to memorize specific information.

The memory feature is entirely optional and can be activated or deactivated as per your preferences settings.

ChatGPT vs Gemini

Most of us are familiar with ChatGPT and maybe a little less familiar with Gemini (previously Bard).

Currently, there are two versions of ChatGPT and Gemini available: free and paid. The cost of both paid plans is $20USD per month.

The free version of ChatGPT is called GPT 3.5, the paid version is GPT 4.0. Similarly, the free version of Gemini is called Pro 1.0 and the paid version is called Ultra 1.0.

Here are some comparisons of the free versions.

Image Generation

ChatGPT is particularly good at generating images based on text-based descriptions. DALL-E will translate most prompts into a photorealistic image that looks like what you had imagined. While it won’t be preferred over Midjourney, it is still great for quick and simple images.

Gemini uses technology that helps it with sketches or artistic interpretations of concepts. While these sketches may not be as photorealistic as DALL-E, they capture a greater portion of detail.

Document Analysis

ChatGPT is great for summarizing key points, extracting relevant information, and answering specific questions about your documents. However, its summaries can sometimes lack nuance and require careful verification.

Gemini is not as advanced and it acknowledged the following when we asked it if it can summarize PDFs:

“Direct Summarization (With Guidance): If you can provide the PDF, I can try to generate a summary of the key points. Be aware that my ability to do this effectively depends on the PDF's length, complexity, and how well-structured it is. Here's how to get the best results:

Give me instructions: Specify the desired summary length (e.g., a few sentences, a paragraph) and any particular aspects you want to focus on.”

You can still achieve similar results with Gemini but it will require more work on your part to guide it.

Proposal Writing

ChatGPT is skilled at creating persuasive arguments that can effectively showcase the value proposition of your design. However, it lacks technical expertise which may result in inaccuracies in proposal details.

On the other hand, Gemini leads in generating precise and technically sound content. Its ability to personalize proposals and incorporate design elements into the document is an added benefit.

Project Documentation

Neither model can generate Excel spreadsheets or PowerPoint presentations in their free versions, both require paid features to do this.

However, ChatGPT wins when it comes to data analysis, report writing, and summarizing varying types of information.

Web Access For Information

ChatGPT offers web surfing for up-to-date information with version 4.0 but only has information up to September 2023 for version 3.5.

Gemini focuses on verified and reliable data sources, ensuring the integrity of your decisions. It even features a button at the bottom of its answer to cross-reference its response from the source it received its information from.

AI Image of the week

Thank you for reading this week’s issue, check past issues here. Share this newsletter with colleagues, friends, or anyone interested in the combined world of architecture and artificial intelligence.

Until next Friday,

A.I.