2023 is the year conversational AI went mainstream.

AI chatbots have been around for years, but they were mostly seen as gimmicky sideshows, ridiculed for giving unhinged responses or failing "the Nazi test." That is, until ChatGPT came along in November 2022.

The popularity of OpenAI's large language model caught the world's attention, and now everyone (especially OpenAI's competitors) is taking AI chatbots seriously. Tech giants like Microsoft and Google are devoting a massive amount of effort and resources to generative AI, introducing chatbots into their search engines and productivity tools. Thanks to public APIs, independent developers and startups suddenly have access to LLMs, allowing them to develop their own applications. There's now an abundance of conversational AI tools that are as good (or almost as good) as ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is noted for its accuracy, but like all chatbots, it still "hallucinates." Keep in mind when using any of these tools, that their responses could be inaccurate or not up-to-date.

Factoring in considerations like accuracy, user experience, availability, and uniqueness, we've rounded up and ranked the best AI chatbots out there. Take a look.

1. ChatGPT

To quote the late, great Tina Turner, ChatGPT is "simply the best." It wasn't the first AI chatbot, but it was the first to package an LLM as advanced as this into an approachable, user-friendly chat interface. The paid version is powered by OpenAI's GPT-4, which is so intelligent, it passed the bar exam. But what makes it so appealing is the human-like responses that are both conversational, yet informative. Now that ChatGPT comes with a Bing plugin, it can browse the internet, giving you up to date search results, whereas before its source of data was cut off after September 2021.

With a free account, you get access to GPT-3.5 and for a ChatGPT Plus subscription of $20 a month you get GPT-4.

How does ChatGPT stay so grounded despite its success? Credit: OpenAI

2. Bing Chat

Thanks to a big investment in OpenAI, Microsoft's Bing Chat is just as advanced as ChatGPT. It uses the same LLM, GPT-4 and is completely free to use. One drawback is the amount of messages, or turns, per conversation which is currently limited to 30 per conversation of 300 per day. But that's still plenty for what most people are trying to accomplish.

Bing also seems to have more restrictive guardrails, which results in shorter responses or refusal to explore certain topics. After a weird conversation with New York Times reporter Kevin Roose, Microsoft may have reigned Bing in a bit. But if you want free access to a free chatbot powered by GPT-4, there's not much to complain about with Bing Chat.

For free access to GPT-4, Bing Chat is hard to beat. Credit: Bing

3. Google Bard

Google scrambled to release its own AI chatbot, Bard, following the surprise success of ChatGPT and subsequent Bing Chat. After a rocky start that was called "botched" and "rushed," Bard has almost caught up to its competitors.

As of Google's announcement at Google I/O, Bard is open to the public and now powered by PaLM 2, the newest version of Google's LLM. While Bard is free to use, which is a major plus, it loses points for inaccuracy and responses that are less nuanced than ChatGPT and Bing.

Bard has to catching up to do with its competitors, but it's still one of the best out there. Credit: Google

4. Character.AI

While most AI chatbots focus on increasing productivity and providing helpful information, Character.AI leans into the science fiction of it all by simulating conversations with real or fictional characters. You may not ever get to meet Keanu Reeves, but with Character.AI, you could imagine what it would be like to chat with the John Wick actor.

As Mashable's Elizabeth de Luna pointed out in her explainer, this concept takes fan fiction to the next level where you can actually talk to simulations of beloved characters like Hermione Granger. Character.AI is powered by a proprietary technology trained on neural language models, and it's completely free.

Even within a fantasy conversation, de Luna ran into some issues with basic factual accuracy. For example, the Hermione character adamantly claimed to be in Hufflepuff, which any Harry Potter fan knows is untrue. But that doesn't seem to be a dealbreaker for some Character.AI users, who instead seem more concerned about its intentional limitations: 77,000 people have signed a petition to remove the chatbot's NSFW filter.

We get the petition to remove NSFW filters. Credit: Character.AI

5. Replika

Remember the movie Her where Joaquin Phoenix's character falls in love with his AI companion? Well, Replika is basically a real-life version of that. Using its proprietary LLM and "scripted dialog content," Replika lets users create their own personal AI companion. Think of it as if you built a relationship with ChatGPT over time. Once you wrap your head around that, you're ready to learn about the numerous stories of people developing romantic relationships with their Replika avatars. That might sound "delulu," but if you try out Replika for yourself, you'll see how easy it is to get attached.

As you might expect from an app designed to create intimate connections between humans and machines, Replika has faced controversies. In January, users reported instances of sexually aggressive interactions. When the company dialed down the sexual nature of conversations, other users were heartbroken by their AI companions that suddenly seemed cooler and distant.

Replika is free and also offers a paid version called Replika Pro for $15 a month.

Replika users have formed deep, meaningful relationships with their AI companions. Credit: Replika

Honorable mentions

There are other AI chatbots that deserve a shoutout, but didn't make the cut for certain reasons. Jasper is a popular one for work-related tasks. You write social media copy, ads, and blog posts, and with Jasper Chat, you can turn conversations into aforementioned marketing assets. But, Jasper only provides a 7-day free trial, with paid subscriptions starting at $50 a month after that.

Another AI chatbot we're keeping an eye on is Anthropic's Claude. Anthropic was founded by former members of OpenAI, so they know their way around an LLM. Currently Claude is only available through select business partnerships like Slack and Zoom, so individuals don't have access yet.