I Tested ChatGPT's New 'Slides' Tool, and Here's How It Compares to Gemini

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I Tested ChatGPT's New 'Slides' Tool, and Here's How It Compares to Gemini

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David Nield is a innovation newsman from Manchester in the U.K. who has been penning concerning gadgets and apps for additional than 20 years.

He has a bachelor's flat in English Literature from Durham University, anywhere he additionally spent a term as publishing company of the award-winning pupil newspaper Palatinate. His reporting occupation started in imprint media, anywhere he contributed to and edited multiple innovation magazines and bookazines sold in the U.K. and internationally.

More recently, he has worked as a freelancer for several of the biggest innovation publications on the web, covering everything from on-the-ground reporting concerning merchandise launches, to detailed explainers and how-to guides on apps, gadgets, and platforms. His ability covers broad areas of person tech, including smartphones, laptops, wearables, and AI.


ChatGPT's capabilities continue to develop apace, and the latest characteristic is a completely capable slideshow creator. Announced a few weeks ago, ChatGPT Slides lets you create PowerPoint-style decks from inner your conversations, and it's now appearing for those on the Pro tier and complete (meaning correct now, you need to expend at smallest $100 a duration to get it).

If you're on the liberated ChatGPT scheme or the $20-a-month Plus tier, you can motionless get ChatGPT to create downloadable PowerPoint records from the satisfied of your conversations. However, they'll be additional essential than those made in the complete type of ChatGPT Slides, and there are no collaboration or native edit options.

ChatGPT Slides is part of OpenAI's shove to provision users a complete agency suite inner the ChatGPT apps. Pages (the term processor) is already accessible for Pro tiers and above, during a spreadsheet app is on the way—the idea being that you volition shortly be capable to get all your activity done without any assistance from Google or Microsoft.

While Chatgpt Slides is lone accessible on pricey plans correct now, it's apt to arrive to lesser subscription tiers in the future. But for now, how does the tool difference to what's accessible in the liberated and Plus tiers, not to citation what you can do with Gemini inner Google Slides? I've taken a detailed look.

How ChatGPT handles presentations for liberated and Pro users

When it comes to evaluation out AI tools, it helps to concentration on item you're already informed concerning so you can place any mistakes. To test this, I decided to see what ChatGPT could hoover up from the web concerning the new iPhone Duo. If you're on the liberated or Plus plans, you can commencement a conversation, afterward ask for a slideshow or PowerPoint concerning it.

Plus accounts additionally have admission to a particular Presentations add-on, accessible via the + (plus) list in the immediate box, although I get the belief this characteristic is in a province of flux since ChatGPT Slides arrived. In any case, you can commencement asking concerning the iPhone Duo specs and first online reactions, and afterward say "build me a slideshow on the key features and reviews so far".

ChatGPT Slides
A slideshow made alongside a ChatGPT Plus account—with a different iPhone Duo display mark. Credit: Lifehacker

What I got rear on the $20 Plus document was a fairly capable slideshow on Apple's foldable, alongside exact data as far as I could see, and a uncomplicated sequence of layouts. It looked akin item you power whip up from a template if you were in a hurry and didn't have period to correctly align all the projectile points or be extremely selective concerning which particulars you included and which you remaining out. One neat contact is that ChatGPT was capable to autumn in an authoritative photo of the iPhone Duo at the commencement of the slideshow, but I had to specifically ask for one.

You can go rear and create particular edits to the slideshow, but you have to depict them in the broad immediate box—you can't choose idiosyncratic glide elements and create additional exact changes. Still, if all you desire to do is occasionally change your ChatGPT conversations into a coarse and prepared slideshow, there's no genuine need to upgrade from the liberated or Plus accounts for now.

ChatGPT Slides is a decent upgrade

Switching to a Pro account, I gave a akin project to ChatGPT Slides expecting for item additional comprehensive. To commencement with, Slides gets its own dedicated area in the app, so you can commencement up a blank display from scratch—there are several essential depiction and content features, but the idea is to use prompts to build your glide deck. It's akin a really essential Google Slides, alongside a immediate box.

Creating a slideshow this way feels fairly tedious: Typing out what you desire to say and afterward waiting for ChatGPT to do it isn't as intuitive as fair throwing in several graphics and content yourself, as you power do in PowerPoint. It additionally seems to be a bit buggy, at smallest during the period I spent evaluation it, alongside several requests not correctly completing.

ChatGPT Slides
With ChatGPT Pro and Slides, the display was much additional polished. Credit: Lifehacker

Starting a norm conversation alongside ChatGPT and afterward turning all the data into a phase is much additional helpful from my perspective. My iPhone Duo slideshow was longer, laid out better, and additional informative than the one I created on the Plus plan—there were equal charts of power division existence and authoritative photos this time.

ChatGPT presentations are motionless lacking at all tier

However, whether I used the free, Plus, or Pro tools, my presentations didn't arrive throughout as particularly fine idea through. They don't really stream smoothly, either throughout idiosyncratic slides or the slideshow as a whole—it feels extremely much akin an algorithm, fairly than a person, has decided what data to contain and anywhere on the slides to rod it.

Whether you create presentations in chats or through the ChatGPT Slides space, you're capable to click on idiosyncratic elements and do several essential manual resizing and repositioning. You can additionally petition edits via prompts: "Drop in an depiction of a cat", "make this pop more", "center all of this information", or any it is.

What do you think so far?
ChatGPT Slides
ChatGPT Slides gets its own area in the app. Credit: Lifehacker

ChatGPT Slides does recommendation collaborative tools, which I wasn't capable to test, and I can see that being helpful for teams heavily invested in ChatGPT's ecosystem. I can additionally ideate ChatGPT Slides coming in helpful whenever you've got a lot of data you need to quickly dump into a slideshow that looks vaguely presentable.

In broad though, I think I'd much fairly rod to the traditional way of making slideshows for now. These old methods are additional exact and additional manageable, and provision you complete authority complete what's shown and where—even if they do obtain a bit longer. What's more, modern-day display tools arrive alongside so many templates and another layout hiv that it's not difficult to put together item that's uncomplicated on the eyes during including all of the data you think is most critical.

How ChatGPT Slides compares to Google Slides in Google AI Pro

Google is, of course, additionally all the way in on AI (and afterward some), and if you pay for Google AI Pro ($19.99 a month) or above, you can have Gemini pop up correct inner Google Slides to provision you several aid alongside your presentation-making. To difference the tools, I gave it the identical project as I did ChatGPT, asking for a glide phase on the new iPhone Duo.

Gemini really asked several questions alongside the way: concerning wht ocular manner to use, the spectators to aim the slideshow at, and the particulars to highlight. Though it's continually imaginable to put this kind of data manually into a prompt, this would be a helpful additional to ChatGPT Slides.

Google Slides
Google Slides and Gemini put together a polished but not ideal glide deck. Credit: Lifehacker

What Gemini and Google Slides produced was notable in conditions of the layout and general vibe of the presentation: It felt much additional akin a individual being had put together the glide phase compared to what ChatGPT had produced, in conditions of the data chosen, the way the slides were laid out, and the color picks.

However, Google's outcome had its faults too: The display got the facts on the maximum brightness of the iPhone Duo display wrong, and produced an "iPhone Duo" explanatory that looked akin two iPhones from about 2021 stuck together. ChatGPT Slides at smallest managed to drag authoritative imagery from the Apple website.

Google Slides
That is plainly not an iPhone Duo... Credit: Lifehacker

You can't nexus idiosyncratic edit prompts to particular parts of your display in Google Slides as you can in ChatGPT Slides—you have to citation them in the broad immediate box. That said, Google Slides is evidently a much additional mature and established slideshow tool compared to the OpenAI equivalent, in conditions of its features and layout options (it has been about for a decade, following all).

Given that additional application construction and the lesser disbursal of entry, Gemini and Google Slides is the improved choice for AI-assisted slideshow making at the moment—though I wouldn't bet against OpenAI catching up. For now, ChatGPT Slides is item that's fine to have accessible if you're already paying a lot for ChatGPT all month, but not a characteristic that makes it value your during to toggle your AI allegiance.

David Nield is a innovation newsman from Manchester in the U.K. who has been penning concerning gadgets and apps for additional than 20 years.

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