Published on November 17th, 2023
Here Are Five Important Tkeaways: Brave’s Chatbot vs. ChatGPT
- Brave’s Leo Chatbot
- Privacy-Focused
- Features
- Two Versions
- Mobile Availability
Brave’s Chatbot vs. ChatGPT
The introduction of Brave’s in-browser AI chatbot, Leo, adds to the growing arena of AI chatbot services that includes popular options like Bing Chat, ChatGPT, and Google Bard.
This development is particularly interesting because Brave is renowned for its emphasis on user privacy and security.
Leo is designed to provide a browser-native chatbot experience for users running version 1.60 of the Brave browser on desktop computers, with plans to expand its availability to mobile users on Android and iOS in the near future.
Leo was initially released for testing and feedback in the Nightly channel in August, with the company’s intention to make it accessible to all users over the coming months.
Leo’s functionality is expected to be comparable to that of its competitors, allowing users to perform tasks such as translation, answering questions, summarizing web content, and generating new content. However, its primary distinguishing feature is its strong emphasis on privacy.
According to Brave, Leo processes user requests through an anonymized server, eliminating the need for users to create accounts, and it discards responses after generating them, ensuring data privacy and security.
Leo offers two versions for users to choose from: a free version and a premium version called Leo Premium.
The free version employs Meta’s Llama 2 large language model (LLM) to provide its services. In contrast, Leo Premium utilizes Anthropic’s Claude Instant and is priced at $15 per month.
Leo Premium is expected to offer additional language models, higher rate limits, superior conversation quality, priority queuing, and access to early features in the future.
The key question here is whether Leo’s privacy-centric approach will be compelling enough to entice users away from established chatbot services like ChatGPT or Bing Chat.
Privacy is an increasingly significant concern in the digital age, and users are becoming more conscious of how their data is handled.
Leo’s promise of processing user requests through an anonymized server and not requiring user accounts aligns with this trend.
However, it remains to be seen whether Brave can allocate the necessary resources to train Llama 2 to compete effectively with larger players in the AI chatbot field, given the substantial challenges and investments associated with training advanced language models.
Additionally, the success of Leo will depend on its performance and the user experience it offers compared to its competitors.
