Category: Free Inquiry

During my Inquiry project, I have discovered a fascination with AI. At the beginning of term, I had a totally different plan for what I had wanted to do for my project, but after we had a lesson on Generative AI, I knew I wanted to do something relating to that topic.

Because I started university in 2019 and then took a two year break starting in 2022, I missed out on the rise of AI usage in the classroom. While all my classmates had had prior knowledge about AI, I had never used it before our AI lesson. The video below was my first true introduction to Generative AI.

After our class on this subject, I went home and played around with the site ChatGPT to get a better feel for how Gen AI works. The more experimenting and researching I did, the more I know that I wanted to switch my Inquiry project to focus on Generative AI sites.

I decided to use films as my control in the research because they are online media and therefore, knowledge which can be accessed by Generative AI sites. Through my experiments with the free versions of ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai, I have discovered that ChatGPT is great for shot concise answers while Perplexity is more in depth. Therefore, I would base which site I wwould use according to the depth of information I was seeking.

The Future of my Inquiry

Even though this course is coming to a close, I would like to continue my research into the depth of knowledge these two Generative AI sites have. I think that any new movie that I watch in the future I will be asking both sites to give me a summary to see how their gathering of information has changed over time. While I may not document every movie I watch on my blog, I would like to document some of the research I do on this website to keep track of what stays the same, what changes, and which site is more accurate.

For my third film, I was planning on watching the South Korean film ‘Unlocked’. However, I am on my parents Netflix account, and because I have not gone home since the summer, Netflix has kicked me off the platform due to not being part of the Netflix household. Netflix was the only platform I could find the movie ‘Unlocked’; Therefore, I had to change plans and watch the next film on my list, the 1994 film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. Before watching the movie, the first step was to ask the free versions of ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai to “Give me a summary of the film The Shawshank Redemption”.

ChatGPT Summary

Perplexity.ai Summary

My Comparison

After reading both summaries and watching the movie, I can say that both descriptions of the film were accurate. However, Perplexity.ai’s summary is much more in depth in comparison to ChatGPT. Yet, that is not to say that ChatGPT is not valuable. Both sites discuss the major plot points in the film, Andy convicted of double murder and sentenced to two life sentences, Andys friendship with Red, his relationship with the warden and the guards, and his escape through the prison walls.

Perplexity.ai was much more detailed in its summary and provided details that are important to the plot of the film. Such as Andys’ relationship with the sisters gang, which causes his time to be even more unbearable and his transformation of the prison library (the scene where Andy finally gets a large shipment of books and other resources, and he plays a song over the prisons loud speaker is definitely my favourite scene).

Which Sites Summary Was Better

I feel that both sites were great summaries in their own way. If you were looking for a short and concise summary to get an idea for what takes place in the film without spoiling the details, ChatGPT’s summary would be perfect. However, if someone was needing to have more details about the film, due to needing to watch the film but not having the time, then Perplexity.ai’s summary would be the one for them.

For my second film in this experiment, I decided to watch the 2019 South Korean movie, Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho. I once again asked the free versions of ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai to “Give me a summary of the film Parasite”.

ChatGPT Summary

Perplexity.ai Summary

My Comparison

After watching Parasite on Prime Video, I must say that this was an incredible film that truly deserved to win the Oscar Academy Award for best picture. This movie had me questioning what was going to happen the entire time. It left me shocked by the violent birthday party ending and how the end result resulted in another man, Ki-taek the Kim’s father, living stuck in the hidden bunker with a new high-society family living above him. History repeating itself.

When looking at the two summaries, there is a large difference in detail. While both sites summaries are accurate and informative, Perplexity.ai goes into more detail in regards to the reveal of Geun-sae in the Park’s hidden bunker. Instead of just stating that there was a ‘dark turn’ as written by ChatGPT, Perplexity.ai provided more details to explain the second half of the film.

Which Sites Summary Was Better

When comparing both summaries, there are positives and negatives for both when arguing which was more informed. If someone decided they wanted a summary of Parasite, before watching, to see if it was something they would enjoy it, I would recommend them to ask ChatGPT. This is because this site gives an accurate, factual, and informative summary while insuring that the major twist is not spoiled. However, if a detailed summary of the film was required with all the major plot point of the movie included, I would inform them that Perplexity.ai would be the better suited choice. Its summary is accurate, factual, and includes the most important instances in the movie. Therefore, neither sites summary was better; instead, both sites provide great summaries which could be used in different situations.

Over the past week, I have been conducting research on Generative AI through articles written about the topic by MIT. There were some articles about general information, many which addressed its uses in a business or workplace setting and the economy, and others which spoke on specific benefits and drawbacks that come with the use of Generative AI. The articles which interested me the most were ones about general knowledge about the topic and those that touched on the drawbacks, specifically the biases and inaccuracies, of the content.

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A common trend in all information I have read is that Generative AI is biased towards gender, race and political affiliations. This is because the information the AI is trained on is the knowledge on the internet which is full of accurate and incorrect information. Also, each time the site is used, the AI is learning from each interaction. Therefore, if someone is asking biased questions, then future results will be biased. I would like to gain a better understanding of the biases in AI and to better understand which areas the sites have more accurate knowledge.

The Plan

Using ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai, I am going to ask them to explain a movie to me. I am going to compare the information both sites provide and then watch the film myself to see how accurate their descriptions were. All the descriptions will be recorded with photos or videos (depending on how much information is provided) and will be posted on my blog. I will then write my own summary and compare which is most accurate.

Because I want to see not only how accurate the information is but also how biased, I have chosen a variety of films from different time periods, nations, and on created for different audiences.

Films I will be watching

1. Gladiator (Oscar winning film 2000)
2. Parasite (Oscar winning film from South Korea 2019)
3. Unlocked (South Korean film not very well known)
4. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
5. Inside out 2 (2024
6. 3/10 to Yuma (2007)

Hopefully by doing this, I will be able to gain a better understanding of the depth of knowledge Generative AI has and can see how the information differentiates based on different nuisances.

After exploring Generative AI in this weeks class, I have decided to change my inquiry project from learning how to play guitar to gaining a better understanding of the depth of knowledge of Generative AI sites.

Because this is an extremely broad topic, I am going to do some research on Generative AI in general to gain a better understanding of the topic. Then I will decide how I would like to approach learning and testing the depth of Gen AI’s knowledge. I do know that I would like to use two different AI sites, most likely ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai, to get broader results and to understand the difference of knowledge on different sites.