AI Platform Masterclass – Episode 15

[00:00:00] Introduction
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Hi, I’m Christine Abela from Oxygen8 Consulting. If you’ve been listening for a while, you’ll know I’m all about helping small business owners get out of the weeds, cut through the noise, and use practical tools to run a more profitable and manageable business. This episode is a little different. It’s an introduction to a free video course I’m sharing called the AI Platform Masterclass.

It’s really useful if you’ve ever wondered how to get more out of tools like ChatGPT, Meta AI, or Perplexity. Whether you are already dabbling with AI or just starting to figure it out, this series walks through how these tools behave with the same prompt and what that means for how you use them in your business.

If you’d like to watch the full video series, you’ll find it at GoBeyondBusy.com.

Welcome to the Deep Dive. This is where we take a whole stack of information, really break it down, and hopefully give you those aha moments that, help you feel truly well-informed. Today, we are plunging into the really fascinating and frankly, fast moving world of AI chatbots. We’ve got a ton of insights here drawn from a pretty comprehensive 21 part video course. It’s called the AI Platform Masterclass. And it does a great job comparing how different chatbots react to similar prompts, which can really help you figure out how to use them for different tasks.

That’s right. And what’s really illuminating, I think isn’t just what these platforms can do, but how they do it differently.

You know, how they approach tasks. Understanding those nuances, it can genuinely change how you work with AI. Make things much more efficient, more effective. So our mission today really is to highlight the unique strengths, maybe some surprising features of each one so you can navigate this whole landscape with a bit more confidence.

And like you said, this deep dive comes straight from that AI Platform Masterclass. It’s a fantastic resource and it’s available totally free over at GoBeyondBusy.com.

[00:02:08] ChatGPT
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Okay. Sounds great. Let’s let’s kick things off with ChatGPT. We’re looking at the latest model here. For anyone who’s maybe started with just a rough idea and needed AI to help shape it, this platform seems to offer a unique kind of back and forth and iterative process. Taking an unstructured prompt and then, step by step, letting you refine it.

Yeah, flexibility is the keyword there. And what’s particularly interesting I find is this canvas element. You’ll see it on the left side of the interface usually. It lets you work with text independently, even while you’re tweaking the main output on the right. It’s not just a notes panel. It really changes how you iterate, letting you fine tune things without losing your main train of thought.

Almost like multitasking your draft, it’s still rolling out, I should mention, but the plan is to have it available at least on a limited basis for free accounts too. So if I’m constantly tweaking things, how much control does it actually give me without starting over? Are we just talking prompts or is it more built in?

Oh, it’s much more built in. And that’s really the point. You don’t even need a new prompt sometimes. There’s a suggested edit panel you can access, lets you adjust things on the fly. Content length: maybe take 800 words down to a 300 word summary. Or change the reading level, add a final polish, even pop in some emojis if you need that tone. And it gets more granular too. Hover over a bit of text and a little WYSIWYG editor pops up. So you can easily bold, italicize, change font size, right there in the output. It’s about finding that, you know, that sweet spot of control without endless reprompting.

That is fascinating and is moving beyond just text, isn’t it? Yeah. I’m curious about, like, accessibility and other functions. Absolutely. The accessibility side is strong. You’ve got audio interaction on mobile. It’s very real time conversational, almost like talking to an assistant. And on desktop there’s a read aloud feature so it can narrate the text back to you.

Great for proofreading or multitasking. And then there’s this whole concept of GPTs. Think of them as like mini apps or specialized AIs. You can find one for making mind maps or helping with code and just plug it into your ChatGPT experience. So connecting this to the bigger picture, ChatGPT is becoming this really adaptable hub, moving way beyond just basic text into a whole ecosystem of tasks.

[00:04:17] Meta AI
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Okay. Moving on from ChatGPT, let’s dive into Meta AI. This one’s an extension of Facebook, right? Built on open source programming. What jumped out at me right away was when we gave it that unstructured prompt. The word count was pretty different from ChatGPT often shorter actually. Yeah, and what’s really interesting with Meta is its approach to editing, especially considering its open source roots. Unlike some others, it’s editing tools don’t cost extra. That’s a big deal for accessibility. The remix feature usually at the top of a post is quite powerful. You click remix, maybe specify you want a blog post format. Choose some effects or tones and then apply those changes. It’s not just small tweaks. You can really reshape the content without starting from scratch.

Make sophisticated editing much more approachable for everyone. So you can just sort of flick between these different versions easily. Yeah. That sounds super efficient. And once you like it, getting the content out; is that simple? Designed to be smooth. You’ve got the standard copy to clipboard option naturally. And when you paste it, say into Word or something, you choose, keep the formatting, merge it, or just plain text. Full control. Plus Meta AI keeps track of your revisions so you can easily jump back to an earlier version if you need to.

Really helpful for creative work. And a cool extra. They have these AI demos, experimental things. Like, you can generate little audio stories with AI voices and sounds. It’s a neat touch.

[00:05:34] Perplexity AI
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Alright, next up, Perplexity AI. Maybe less known, but definitely powerful. Primarily for research, but it works as a chat bot too. Has free and paid versions.

When we prompted it, it gave a clear step-by-step process. But like some others, the word count wasn’t always exactly what we asked for. But Perplexity’s real standout feature, its core identity, is transparency. Commitment to showing its work. At the bottom of the output, there’s a rewriting tool.

You can even pick between GPT-4 or Perplexity’s own model Sonar for different results. But the absolute game changer is the sources. It gives you hyperlinked sources for everything it says. Grouped at the top, and also embedded right in the text. Hover over a sentence, see where it came from. Wow. So if your work relies on accuracy, on verifiable facts, this is huge. It really shifts how you think about AI generated information.

That level of transparency is incredibly helpful. Can you actually can you do anything with those sources? Yeah. Influence the output. You absolutely can. That’s what makes it so powerful. You can look at the list of sources it used.

If you see one that looks off or maybe isn’t quite relevant, you can just remove it. Yep. Remove the source and Perplexity will rewrite the content based only on the ones you kept. That gives you direct control over the information base. It’s pretty unique. Plus other handy features like searching for related images, uploading your own documents for it to analyze and setting a specific focus right at the start, like academic or YouTube to get more targeted results.

Precision and trust. That’s the focus.

[00:07:06] Google Gemini
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Okay. Shifting gears now to Google Gemini, Google’s chat bot. Again, paid and free versions. Different engines too, right? Curl with Advanced and Flash. Exactly. Curl with Advanced is for the more complex, nuanced stuff. Flash is designed for speed, quick answers. Like the others, it gives you step-by-step guides, article content. And yeah, we also saw it sometimes came in under the requested word count, but what’s really impressive with Gemini is its set of revision tools. All accessible without needing a fresh prompt. You can click show drafts, boom, three different versions of the same answer instantly.

Yeah. Or regenerate completely new ones. And below the output, there’s a modifier response panel. Super useful. Make it shorter, longer, simpler. Switch the tone between casual or professional. Just clicks. So thinking bigger picture, Gemini feels engineered for really fast iteration. Getting to the output you want quickly, especially if you’re playing with different styles. And it feels very Google, doesn’t it?

Like deeply tied into their ecosystem. Yes. If I’m already using docs and Gmail all day, how well does it fit? It’s built for exactly that. Sure. Seamless integration is the goal. The main ways to get content out are centered on Google’s free tools. You can draft an email directly in Gmail, export straight to Google Docs.

It saves right to your drive. Or create a shareable public link for the document instantly. Right. So yeah, if you’re already heavily invested in Google’s tools, Gemini, just slots right in; very little friction. And another nice touch, really good audio interaction. You can listen to its answers and even speak your queries using your mic right from the desktop.

Super convenient.

[00:08:37] Claude AI
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Okay, last one on our list for today, Claude AI. Traditionally known for being strong on writing tasks, but it’s been upgraded quite a bit. Offers different models, some really excelling at complex stuff. And the interface is different with these Claude artifacts. Instructions on the left, output on the right.

Exactly. And this points to a really key difference in its workflow philosophy. Claude doesn’t really have those direct in line editing tools we saw in say, ChatGPT, or Gemini Instead, every change you want means writing a new prompt. And each prompt generates a completely new artifact, a distinct version.

You see these listed on the left, you can toggle between them. So it’s all about prompt driven refinement. It creates this really clear history of your iterations. It’s deliberate version control basically. You always know how you got there. And when you’re happy, you can download the artifact as a markdown file.

It’s a simple format that works nicely with Word, Google Docs, keeps things clean. So less direct manipulation, more iterative prompting for new versions. That’s definitely a different approach. Yeah. What about its unique output capabilities; more than just text documents? Yeah. This is where Claude gets really interesting, I think. It’s superpower, maybe. You can copy/paste, download the markdown, sure. But you can also publish an artifact publicly with a link. Then make it private again later if you need to. And other Claude users can actually remix your published artifact in their own accounts. Kind of fosters collaboration.

But the really special thing about these artifacts, available in free and paid versions, is what they can be. It’s not just text. We’re talking code snippets, website designs, like visual layouts. Even interactive web elements or visual guides like generating infographics or mind maps directly. Yeah. It’s ability to move beyond just words into structured, visual, even interactive creations is it’s really quite impressive.

It’s like an architect for different kinds of digital things.

[00:10:28] Making sense of it all
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Okay, so that was a whirlwind tour. What does all this mean for you, the listener? Trying to make sense of it all? We’ve looked at five really powerful AI chatbots. ChatGPT, Meta AI, Perplexity AI, Google Gemini and Claude AI. And clearly each one has it own personality, right?

It’s own strengths, ways of editing, ways of getting stuff out, direct edits, source checking, artifact building. So it’s a diverse toolkit. It really is. And understanding those unique qualities, that’s the key to using them effectively. Thinking bigger picture, the best way to leverage them is to know which platform strengths align best with your specific task at hand.

And, just as an example of maybe more advanced use. Imagine taking some important documents, feeding them to several of these chat bots with the same prompt. Analyzing how each one tackles it differently. Then taking those analyses and feeding them into a tool like say, Google’s NotebookLM. NotebookLM is really good at synthesizing information from multiple sources, doing that kind of meta-analysis. It helps you draw out deeper insights. So it really opens up possibilities for how you gather information, how you create things.

The big question for you listening is how will you combine these tools to elevate your own work?

[00:11:35] Free 21-part video course
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That was genuinely insightful, a real deep dive into this AI chatbot world, and we’ve honestly just scratched the surface of what they can do.

But hopefully you’ve picked up some valuable insights, maybe had a few aha moments to guide you on your own AI journey. And remember all the detailed comparisons and insights we talked about today came from excerpts of the AI Platform Masterclass. That’s a full 21 part video course. And the best part, it is completely free.

You can find the whole course plus detailed show notes for this deep dive and loads more just by visiting. GoBeyondBusy.com. The folks at Go Beyond Busy also have their own podcast, sharing smart ways to grow and simplify your business. Definitely worth checking out. And one last thing, if you’re a small business owner trying to navigate all this tech stuff, we really do recommend thinking about working with a business consultant who gets tech, someone like Christine from Go Beyond Busy.

You can find her info and more resources again at GoBeyondBusy.com. Until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep diving deep.

Thanks for listening to this special episode of Go Beyond Busy. I hope it sparked a few ideas about how you could be using AI tools in a more practical way for your business. If you’d like to watch the full video series for free, head over to GoBeyondBusy.com. You’ll find the AI Platform Masterclass there.

It’s completely free and gives you a side by side look at how different AI platforms respond to the same prompts.

If you ever want a hand figuring out how to use AI in your business or just want someone to cut through the noise, that’s what I do. Head over to GoBeyondBusy.com and get in touch.