I’ve mentioned incorporating AI in my life, and I thought using several AI models to plan a road trip would be a good experiment. It would give me an excellent opportunity to compare and contrast them. The usual suspects were involved, except for one: Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, OpenAi’s ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI travel planner Ask Layla. I entered the same thing into each AI model:
I want to take a roadtrip with my son. I’d like to leave Tuesday June 18 no later than 6PM and drive and sleep in Little Rock, Arkansas. I want to visit the Clinton Presidential Library. I then want to drive to Memphis and visit Graceland and the Civil Rights museum. I then want to drive to St. Louis and visit and plan activities at the World Chess Hall of Fame for my 12 year old son who loves to play chess. Instead of driving back, I want a fly back to Dallas Love Field or DFW Airport nonstop. I plan on paying for the rental car, hotel stay, and flight using credit card reward points from USAA, either in full or partially. I want to return at the latest Saturday June 22 by 1:00 PM, but don’t mind returning a day earlier. Help me plan this. I’m not sure if I want to, but I think it would be neat to stay at a Graceland or Elvis themed hotel in Memphis.
This is what Google’s Gemini planned. I liked how it planned each day, giving me approximate travel, viewing or visiting time, and operating hours. I hoped it would combine the Clinton Library and Graceland into one day, but it didn’t. However, it provided me with links to buy tickets at both places and links to their website or Wikipedia pages. As I expected, it suggested I use Google Flights to book a flight for the final day. It also provided a few general travel tips, like keeping the weather in mind.
ChatGPT doesn’t provide a link like Gemini, so I cut and pasted the results in a Google Doc. No biggie. But I was surprised it didn’t provide links to buy tickets at any of the venues. It gave me a few more tips, such as booking, logistics, and potential costs, but less detail overall. Unlike Gemini, it broke each day into morning, afternoon, and evening activities. It wasn’t all that much different, but I’d say the information was more streamlined. I would give it bonus points for telling me to look for special exhibits or events, but I’d be more impressed if it did it for me.
Here’s what Perplexity provided. It was similar to ChatGPT, but provided sources. Unlike ChatGPT, it did provide a list of special events and even suggested a teacher workshop. The other two AI models understood I live in the DFW area, but I don’t think Perplixity did as it suggested places to visit in Dallas. I had high hopes for Perplexity, but I’m starting to lose interest in it daily.
I wish Microsoft’s Copilot provided a link because it provided a lot of good detail, made it more personalized, and provided embedded maps. So, I had to resort to cutting and pasting the results into a GoogleDoc, which really doesn’t do it justice. Overall, it seemed well cited or sourced. Unlike the others, Copilot provided the cost of tickets to all of the venues.
Somehow, I ran across an AI travel planner called Ask Layla. At first, I was highly impressed. I liked how it laid out all the travel information, and it suggested a scavenger hunt tour in Little Rock and an astronomy tour with an expert astronomer. It suggested similar activities in the other cities as well. But, I wanted to streamline the agenda, so I asked it not to include the scavenger hunt tour in Little Rock. The interface told me no problem and provided another agenda, but still suggested the scavenger hunt tour. When I told it that it suggested it even though I told it not to, it told me to read over the results again because it didn’t include the scavenger hunt, even though it clearly did. So, again and again, I tried to modify my traveling agenda, but it would always include the scavenger hunt. I researched the astronomy tour and found out the company is no longer in business. Despite telling Layla the company was no longer in business, it continued to suggest both it and the scavenger hunt. After a while, it became really frustrating, and I felt like I was arguing with an actual human. I’m so disappointed in the tool that is obviously trying to upsell me on experiences I’m not even going to provide a link.
