Why there could be a new AI chatbot champ by the time you read this

OpenAI and Google, two major players in artificial intelligence (AI), continue to fight for model supremacy in the public forum -- and the race is rapidly heating up. 

Just a day after OpenAI secured the number one chatbot title in the Chatbot Arena with its GPT-4o update, Google released Gemini Exp 1121, an experimental model that quickly rose to tie with ChatGPT for the top spot. The latest development was announced via an X post on Thursday by the Chatbot Arena's official account, which noted that large language model (LLM) "progress is now measured in days." 

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Compared with Gemini's last release, Exp 1114, the model's update helped it climb from third to first place overall, and specifically improved in hard prompts, coding, math, and creative writing. Gemini had already been in first place in the vision category. 

The ranking switch-up illustrates the exponential progress of AI developments, especially considering that ChatGPT has long occupied the top spot in the Chatbot Arena, even with truncated models like GPT-4o mini. Google's jump marks the third trade of the crown between the two companies in a single week. 

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Logan Kilpatrick, senior product manager at Google, also posted on X about the release, noting that the experimental model comes with "significant gains" in coding, as well as better reasoning and visual comprehension. 

For those who want to test it themselves, users can try Gemini Exp 1121 in the Chatbot Arena itself per usual. The model is available now in Google AI Studio and via the Gemini API. Kirkpatrick added in a separate post that generally available models are on the way, but did not provide a release date.