Slow chat bots

If you’ve been using Perplexity or any other AI-based search engine, you know that it takes a few seconds to get the answer to your questions typically.

In my tests, Perplexity with the new Sonar model was three to five times faster than ChatGPT Search.

This reminds me of a fantastic essay I read from Craig Mod, that the best software is fast software.

I’ve had a niggling in the back of my head about the speed of chatbots. They're not fast.

It reminds me of Lycos or Ask Jeeves in years gone by. I’d type my query and wait a few seconds, or even a minute, to hear something back. Then Google appeared on the scene and measured results in milliseconds. I never looked back.

Though OpenAI has brand recognition and is the default app that everyone talks about, I do wonder if speed could win out above all else. Unfortunately Perplexity Sonar is only available to pro users, so I haven’t tried it out yet.

Via Parker Ortolani.