Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity Walk Into a Bar… Who Buys the First Round?

By Bill Milling, American Movie Company

If you work in media, marketing, or video production or you just enjoy watching AI slowly eat the internet chances are you’ve run across Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. They’re all large language models with massive potential, complicated personalities, and enough overlapping skills to start their own startup.

I recently came across a wonderfully clear breakdown of how these three compare, and I’d like to tip my hat to the author of that piece as the inspiration for this blog. Credit where credit is due. Now, let’s dive in with a little of my own spin.

So here’s the scene. Claude is the polite one. Think of him as the research assistant who’s always on time, never says anything too bold, and will summarize a thousand-page document without a single complaint. He’s a great listener, and you trust him to keep the tone civil at your client meetings. But ask him to tell a joke or write a YouTube script and he starts to get uncomfortable.

Then there’s ChatGPT our creative overachiever. This one can write, riff, storyboard, compose, translate, and even read images. Ask it for a slogan, a screenplay, or a breakdown of the Battle of Thermopylae in the voice of a Brooklyn barista, and it’s game on. ChatGPT (especially GPT-4o) is the one I use daily at American Movie Company to ideate, script, produce, and occasionally debate the existential future of film. It’s also the only one that laughs at my jokes. Respect.

And finally we have Perplexity. The speed demon. The facts guy. The one who actually reads the news and links to it like a nerdy overachiever in a college seminar. Perplexity doesn’t have time for clever turns of phrase. It’s here to get you an answer with sources and receipts. Think of it as your AI-powered librarian who lives on espresso and Wikipedia.

Now which one should you use? Easy. All of them. Just like you don’t use one camera lens for every shot, you don’t rely on one AI for every task. Claude is your researcher. ChatGPT is your creative partner. Perplexity is your real-time fact checker.

At the end of the day, these tools are collaborators. Not replacements. They help us tell better stories, make better decisions, and get to the good stuff faster. In our studio, that means more time focusing on visuals, talent, direction, and less time sweating logistics or typing with one eye open at 3am.

So thank you, Claude. Thank you, ChatGPT. Thank you, Perplexity. And thank you to the original writer who mapped this out so clearly.