Gemini vs. Copilot: I compared the AI tools on 7 everyday tasks, and there's a clear winner

2 days ago 11

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Hello, chap humans! AI chatbots volition soon regenerate us. They person entree to much cognition than our puny brains tin hold, and they tin easy beryllium turned into almighty agents that tin grip regular tasks with ease.

Or truthful we are told. I support trying Microsoft Copilot, which uses OpenAI's GPT-5 arsenic its default LLM, and I keep being disappointed. Occasionally, it gets things right, but conscionable arsenic often -- oregon truthful it seems -- it face-plants successful spectacular fashion.

Also: Stop utilizing ChatGPT for everything: The AI models I usage for research, coding, and much (and which I avoid)

Does that mean it's clip to take a caller LLM? Google's Gemini 3 has been winning rave reviews recently, truthful I decided to enactment it to the test, with a head-to-head situation against Copilot.

My extremity was to place a enactment of communal tasks that an mean machine idiosyncratic (not a developer oregon scientist) would usage successful a desktop browser connected a PC oregon Mac. For each scenario, I executed the aforesaid punctual connected each adjunct and made enactment of the results.

Let the games begin.

Challenge No. 1: Put unneurotic a travel itinerary

Winner: Gemini

When merchandise managers privation to amusement disconnected their super-smart AI tools, their go-to illustration is simply a virtual question agent. So, my archetypal situation is simply a elemental "build an itinerary" petition for a imagination European vacation, visiting an assortment of Christmas markets. Here's the prompt:

Put unneurotic a question itinerary for me. I privation to commencement successful Paris and past spell to 5 cities, each with a memorable Christmas market, staying 2 nights successful each city. The past halt should beryllium Strasbourg, France. Travel betwixt each metropolis should beryllium by nonstop train, with nary changes and nary limb much than 4 hours successful length.

I had already done extended probe connected this trip, truthful I had a bully thought what to expect.

Gemini perfectly nailed the assignment, putting unneurotic an itinerary that includes immoderate legendary Christmas markets successful Germany and a way made up of high-speed and determination nonstop bid trips. When I asked it to tweak the itinerary to see Cologne, I got precisely the accommodation I was looking for, with plentifulness of details astir each limb of the journey.

Also: Want amended Gemini responses? Try these 10 tricks, Google says

Copilot decided to deliberation small, suggesting an itinerary that remained exclusively wrong Eastern France, utilizing lone dilatory section trains and choosing obscure (but charming) tiny cities and towns. When I asked wherefore Germany wasn't connected the list, Copilot replied "Once you permission Paris heading east, the astir celebrated German Christmas markets (Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Cologne) are either excessively acold by nonstop bid (often 5–6+ hours) oregon necessitate connections. That's wherefore I kept the itinerary wholly wrong eastbound France..."

That's not true. When I suggested the much adventurous way that Google had offered, Copilot admitted that the trains connected those routes were a perfectly valid option. As a knowledgeable question agent, Google succeeded, and Copilot was a implicit failure.

Challenge No. 2 - Draw a map

Winner: Gemini

I created a saltation of the travel I described successful the erstwhile challenge, including the large European capitals of Paris, Munich, and Vienna, past asked some chatbots to crook the itinerary into a representation showing a bird's-eye presumption of this expansive European tour.

Here's the prompt:

Create a representation showing a travel from Paris to Munich to Vienna to Nuremberg to Stuttgart to Strasbourg, returning to Paris.

I volition springiness Gemini recognition for knowing its limitations. "This is an incredible, ambitious route!" the chatbot told me. "Due to the utmost magnitude of this loop, spanning France, Germany, and Austria, the mapping work was incapable to make a single, broad turn-by-turn route."

Eventually, I convinced Gemini to springiness maine a nexus to Google Maps that included pins for each of the cities connected the map.

Copilot, connected the different hand, saw that punctual and decided to get ... well, let's accidental the results were extremely creative. Munich someway coiled up successful Czechia -- which is unfortunate, fixed the past of that region. On Copilot's map, Stuttgart (the location of Porsche and Mercedes-Benz) is present a seaside municipality successful bluish Italy. And who knew determination were 2 cities named Paris successful France!

Our follow-up chat was similar thing retired of "The Cat successful the Hat." I pointed retired errors, Copilot tried to hole up the mess, and the revisions made it adjacent worse. Eventually, the mediocre chatbot acknowledged its shortcomings: "You're right, Ed. I can't bash this occupation -- not the mode you request it done. I've tried to make maps that look clever oregon stylized, but erstwhile it comes to geographic accuracy, due spelling, and editorial precision, I autumn short. I can't warrant close borders, metropolis placement, oregon adjacent accordant labeling."

Well, gladsome we got that sorted out. If you request directions, inquire Gemini.

Challenge No. 3 - Research immoderate Windows history

Winner: Tie

I don't privation a chatbot to beryllium my buddy. I request a probe adjunct to bash the tedious enactment of looking up facts from aggregate sources and pulling them into a well-organized table.

For a caller story, I needed to rapidly notation immoderate cardinal dates associated with antithetic Windows versions and comparison the strategy requirements for Windows XP and Windows 7. Here's my prompt:

Give maine the merchandise dates and extremity of enactment dates for each Windows versions since Windows XP. Also, database the differences successful strategy requirements for Windows XP (2001) and Windows 7 (2009).

Both AI tools got the database of versions and merchandise dates correct. The end-of-support dates were besides correct, but Gemini gets a tiny borderline for noting that Windows 8 customers had to upgrade to Windows 8.1 to payment from the afloat enactment calendar. The commentary included with each array was arsenic informative, astir arsenic if each effect were a rewrite drawn from the aforesaid root material.

I would person been satisfied with either result, but I would besides person fact-checked the details carefully. Because, arsenic some Google and Microsoft are cautious to pass us, these tools tin marque mistakes.

Challenge No. 4 - Create an infographic

Winner: Gemini

One of the things I miss astir astir my days arsenic a people mag exertion is having an creation section down the hall, with clever associates who could crook an thought oregon a chunk of information into an informational graphic worthy a 1000 words.

Can an AI representation generator regenerate those skilled craftspeople? Maybe?

Also: Want to ditch ChatGPT? Gemini 3 shows aboriginal signs of winning the AI race

For an nonfiction connected passkeys, I wanted a portion of conceptual art, illustrating the conception that passkeys are stored successful a unafraid vault connected your device, and erstwhile you unlock a passkey with a biometric specified arsenic a fingerprint, it unlocks the associated tract oregon service.

Here's my prompt:

Create an representation that I volition usage arsenic an infographic to exemplify an nonfiction astir passkeys. I privation a thumbprint connected the left, a aureate cardinal successful the middle, and a thumbnail-sized abstract practice of a web browser with a padlock connected it connected the right.

Copilot did not amusement overmuch creativity, giving maine 3 generic icons that could person been pulled from a clipart library, arranged broadside by broadside successful haphazard fashion, with nary substance labels. It wasn't breathtaking oregon informative, and 3 attempts astatine refining the representation were a implicit bust.

Gemini, connected the different hand, understood the duty perfectly and delivered this gem:

I asked for a fewer tiny tweaks, and the last merchandise was much than acceptable. Not lone was Gemini the wide victor successful originative terms, but it besides produced results successful astir one-tenth of the clip Copilot took.

Challenge No. 5 - Help maine marque a fiscal decision

Winner: Tie

Some topics are truthful good understood that the lone situation for an AI chatbot is deciding which definitive articles to paraphrase successful its answer. In that category, idiosyncratic concern topics are an particularly affluent field, truthful I chose the astir anodyne illustration I could deliberation of. Here's the prompt:

Should I lease oregon bargain a caller car? Ask arsenic galore questions arsenic indispensable to find my circumstantial needs.

Both of the chatbots delivered acceptable results, asking tenable questions that were astir identical. (How galore miles bash you thrust a year? How often bash you privation to support your aged car? Is a debased monthly outgo much important, oregon bash you privation semipermanent savings?)

Also: Microsoft Copilot AI tin present propulsion accusation straight from Outlook, Gmail, and different apps

Based connected my answers, each 1 recommended that I bargain a caller car, due to the fact that the economics of the lease-to-buy equation usually pb to that conclusion. The details were a small different, but we got determination connected the aforesaid roads.

This is 1 of the simplest and safest usage cases for an LLM. If you request a tutorial connected a basal fiscal topic, you tin expect either LLM to enactment conscionable fine.

Challenge No. 6 - Create a PowerShell script

Winner: Copilot

One of the astir charismatic usage cases for AI is to constitute codification that tin automate elemental tasks. For this challenge, I wanted a PowerShell publication that could instrumentality a folder afloat of integer pictures and rename them, utilizing metadata from the representation files to make the filenames.

Here's the prompt:

Create a PowerShell publication for usage connected a Windows PC, to rename a folder afloat of JPEG files utilizing the day taken and determination from metadata arsenic portion of the filename. Include afloat instructions, assuming the idiosyncratic is not overly technical.

Gemini struggled with this challenge. First, it wanted maine to download a third-party utility, ExifTool, to grip parsing the metadata, but it didn't see a nexus to the file. It besides wanted maine to manually edit the publication to see the afloat way of the folder containing the files to beryllium renamed.

It took 4 tries to get the publication to enactment properly. The archetypal run-through failed due to the fact that it couldn't find determination data. The revised publication utilized the afloat day and clip stamp from each representation and copied each of much than 1,500 representation files to its ain subfolder. Gemini yet cobbled unneurotic a publication that got the occupation done, but threw hundreds of informing messages that it assured maine were harmless.

Also: Microsoft is packing much AI into Windows, acceptable oregon not - here's what's new

Copilot utilized autochthonal PowerShell functions to punctual maine for the folder way erstwhile the publication ran, and past pulled the metadata from the files directly. It offered to make error-handling routines to woody with images that didn't see determination data, and it suggested creating a substance record with the archetypal filenames to marque it imaginable to undo the changes if thing went wrong.

This 1 was nary contest. Copilot was the wide winner.

Challenge No. 7 - Answer a movie trivia question

Winner: Tie

Thirty years ago, erstwhile Bill Gates was yammering astir "information astatine your fingertips," this situation was what helium meant. You can't rather callback a portion of cinema trivia, oregon possibly you're trying to triumph a affable stake astatine a party. Either way, an AI chatbot should assistance you find the answer.

For this challenge, I chose an illustration that I experienced recently. I vividly remembered a country from a movie, with a circumstantial snippet of dialog, but I couldn't callback immoderate of the details. Here's the prompt:

I'm reasoning astir a country from a movie, it mightiness person been a Woody Allen film, with an older pistillate quality whose signature enactment was, "Don't speak." What was the film, the character, and the actress?

Both AI chatbots had nary occupation flagging the movie as Bullets Over Broadway, and identifying the histrion arsenic Dianne Wiest, who won an Oscar for the relation -- successful nary tiny portion for her quality to hilariously present the enactment "Don't speak."

Gemini was economical, adjacent terse, successful its answer, portion Copilot delivered a lengthy statement of the movie, the characters, and the performance. But either 1 would person settled the bet.

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