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Artificial Intelligence (AI)

A topical overview of AI in research and education

Generative AI Tools Comparison

Feature	Copilot	Perplexity	ChatGPT
Base Technology	GPT-4 with Bing integration	Mixture of expert models	OpenAI's GPT models (GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini)
Information Accuracy	Real-time but can be inaccurate	Excels in accuracy, real-time	Depends on pre-trained knowledge, limited web access
Interaction Style	Creative, Balanced, Precise styles	Structured responses	Natural conversations
Specialized Features	• DALL-E 3 integration • Microsoft ecosystem integration	• Advanced article summarization • Various writing modes	• Custom instructions • Web browsing (paid) • Image generation
Limitations	• 5 responses per conversation • 4000 characters per prompt	Lacks image generation capability	Free version has knowledge cut-off
Price	$30/month for Microsoft 365 Copilot $20/month for Copilot Pro	Free plan available Professional plan: $20/month	Free plan available Plus: $20/month
Best For	General-purpose AI with web search	Research and information retrieval	Versatile conversations and content generation

See also:

Using Generative AI
by Bronwen Maxson Last Updated Mar 6, 2025 257 views this year

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot
How to Use

Microsoft Copilot
Copilot is an advanced conversational AI model based on the GPT-4 architecture. It is designed to assist users with a wide range of tasks, from synthesizing information and offering support to completing productivity-related activities.

Perplexity

Perplexity
How to Use

Perplexity
Perplexity AI is an innovative AI-powered search engine that combines the capabilities of large language models with real-time web searching to provide comprehensive, up-to-date answers to user queries.
Perplexity is available as a web app, mobile app, and Chrome extension.
Standard plan: free forever. Pro plan: $20 per month or $200 per year.
Purdue community earns free access to Perplexity Pro for one year

ChatGPT

ChatGPT
How to Use

ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an AI language model by OpenAI that generates human-like text based on input. It's used for conversations, answering questions, and tasks like writing or research across various fields.
ChatGPT is available on mobile or desktop.
Free version; ChatGPT Plus: $20 per month

Introducing GPT-4o
Prompt Engineering
This guide shares strategies and tactics for getting better results from large language models (sometimes referred to as GPT models) like GPT-4o.
What can you do with GPT-4?

Google Gemini

Google Gemini
How to Use

Google Gemini
Gemini is a large language model developed by Google AI. It is capable of generating human-quality text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions.