I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Claude on the AI front, and as such have decided to switch to it from my trusty, multi-year ChatGPT subscription. I’ve heard Claude recommendations from many a YouTube user, and even Rick Beato – a man I very much admire – gave props to it at a seminar he gave here in London. Claude has a lot to measure up to. I’ve been quite happy with ChatGPT using it as a resource for just about everything I need help with. It isn’t perfect, but as long as you query it from an auditor’s ‘trust but verify’ approach, it can be very useful.

I am thinking more and more this will be a case of one is better at a few things than the other, but lags behind in others.

Off the cuff, I like the fact that Claude installs on your computer and can run internal tasks for you, like checking emails, organising files, creating schedules, and other administrative activities. It can also link with Excel, Adobe, and other apps to augment output. It comes at a steeper price, however, even though the base subscription is roughly the same per month. Let me explain, unlike ChatGPT, which I have never reached a ‘limit’ on, and can essentially use any time and for as long as I like; Claude will only allow so much usage at a time based on subscription and task load. For example, when using Claude Assistant to reorganise my external HDD, I ran into occasions where it would pause for two hours because I had hit my usage limits. Then would start up again, run for about ten minutes, only to pause again for several more hours. So wth heavy tasks, it gobbles up subscription time with the veracious appetite of a camel spider.

To be fair, I was having it reorganise a 12TB HDD with years of digital hoarding on it. Something that ChatGPT is not capable of doing at all.

Using Claude for general AI queries does seem a bit different to ChatGPT. Claude seems a bit more earnest, a little less anxious to please as its counterpart. But these are early days – more daily interaction will tell the tale.

Ill let you know how it goes with Claude. I do feel a little ‘sad(?)’ leaving ChatGPT. It has helped me remodel a bathroom, troubleshoot the car, navigate through the keto diet, enhance my resume, and proof many a report. But perhaps that is exactly the right thing to do when feeling chummy with an AI – change to something else.