Our Leonberger ChatGPT and Google AI

Today I was having fun with ChatGPT and Google AI. I asked ChatGPT the following question : Was there a Leonberger called Bronco?

The answer is shown below

The picture is a screenshot. The ChatGPT answer is below.
I took a screenshot of the answer.

If the text is hard to read in the picture, this is the answer ChatGPT gave.

Yes, there was a Leonberger named Bronco. Bronco, officially named Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, lived with the Wikman family in Dallas, Texas, from 2007 until his passing in 2020. Notably, he lived an unusually long life for his breed, reaching almost thirteen years, surpassing the typical life expectancy of Leonbergers, which is around nine years. His story is detailed in the book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle” by Thomas Wikman, which shares anecdotes of Bronco’s adventures and provides insights into caring for Leonbergers.

I think that sounds right.

Confusing ChatGPT

Next, I asked ChatGPT the following question : Did the Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle rescue Hamsters?

I can add that Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle is a unique Leonberger name. There is a Leonberger database called the Worldwide Independent Leonberger Database featuring more than 172,000 Leonbergers. It covers most Leonbergers in the world back until the beginning of the 20th century and only three of them were named Bronco including Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, which is the only Leonberger named exactly that. As you can see below ChatGPT is confusing our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle with another dog.

The picture is a screenshot. The ChatGPT answer is below.
I took a screenshot of the answer.

If the text is hard to read in the picture, this is the answer ChatGPT gave.

Yes, Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, a Leonberger, is known for his heroic act of rescuing a group of hamsters! This event gained attention when Le Bronco, who was living in Germany, saved several hamsters from a fire in 2011. The hamsters were trapped in their cages, and thanks to Le Bronco’s quick thinking and bravery, he managed to alert his owners and helped rescue the small animals.

His actions were recognized as a remarkable act of kindness and heroism, showing the intelligence and sensitivity that dogs, particularly the Leonberger breed, can possess.

I’ve noticed that ChatGPT is sometimes wrong. For example, when you ask questions on a topic for which there is sparse information ChatGPT frequently gets the answer wrong. Another way to confuse ChatGPT and get bad answers is to ask vague questions or ask questions that cannot be answered precisely. ChatGPT relies on internet data and may base its answers on people’s biases and cliches rather than accurate information.

Google AI on Bronco

Interestingly enough, Google AI gave more extensive and interesting answers to my questions, and unlike ChatGPT it answered both of them correctly and provided links to the sources.

First, I asked : Was there a Leonberger called Bronco?

This is what I got :

The picture is a screenshot. The Google AI answer is below.
Screenshot of answer.

If the text is hard to read in the picture, this is what the screenshot says.

Yes, there was a Leonberger named Bronco. Bronco, officially named Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, lived with the Wikman family in Dallas, Texas, from 2007 until his passing in 2020. Notably, he lived an unusually long life for his breed, reaching almost thirteen years, surpassing the typical life expectancy of Leonbergers, which is around nine years. His story is detailed in the book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle” by Thomas Wikman, which shares anecdotes of Bronco’s adventures and provides insights into caring for Leonbergers.

Yes, there was a well-known Leonberger named “Bronco” (Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle) who lived with the Wikman family in Dallas, Texas, and was the subject of a book and blog called “Leonberger Life”.

Here’s a more detailed look at Bronco and his story:

As I scrolled down there was more

The picture is a screenshot. The Google AI answer is below.
Screenshot of answer after a bit of scrolling.

If the text is hard to read in the picture, this is what the screenshot says.

Owner:

Thomas Wikman, a retired automation, robotics, and software engineer, and his wife raised three children, and later lived with their two dogs—a pug and a miniature Australian shepherd.

Book and Blog:

Thomas Wikman wrote a book, “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle” and a blog, “Leonberger Life” about his Leonberger, Bronco.

Longevity:

Bronco lived a relatively long life for a Leonberger, receiving the “Grey Muzzle Award” for living longer than 12 years.

Notable Incidents:

Bronco was known for his bravery and protective nature, saving Daisy’s life and potentially Baylor’s life, as well as scaring off a trespasser.

Death:

Bronco passed away in 2020.

On the right side there are references to two of my blog posts and one post by Annika Perry.

The picture is a screenshot. The Google AI answer is below.
Screenshot of answer after a bit more of scrolling.

If the text is hard to read in the picture, this is what the screenshot says.

Thomas Wikman had Bronco, a 167-pound Leonberger who, by all accounts, was an extraordinary dog with a remarkable owner.

This is followed by a link to the People Newspapers a Newspaper that published a review of my book.

How did Google AI do on the second question?

I asked Google AI the same question : Did the Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle rescue Hamsters?

The picture is a screenshot. The Google AI answer is below.
Screenshot of answer.

If the text is hard to read in the picture, this is what the screenshot says.

Yes, the Leonberger, Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, is known for a story where he “rescued” two escaped hamsters by carrying them in his cheeks, though they were later revived by Claudia, Thomas’s wife, performing CPR.

Here’s a more detailed account:

The picture is a screenshot. The Google AI answer is below
Screenshot of answer after additional scrolling.

If the text is hard to read in the picture, this is what the screenshot says.

The Hamster Escape Artist:

The kids had pet hamsters named Moldova and Montenegro, who occasionally escaped their cages.

Bronco’s Unique Skill:

Claudia would tell Bronco, “Bronco, find the hamsters,” and he would sniff around the house until he located them.

Examples of Bronco’s “Rescues”:

One time he found them in the linen closet.

Another time he found them on a shelf in the living room.

On one occasion, a friend of David trusted them with his two hamsters, and Bronco later “rescued” them after Claudia noticed they were missing from their cage, with Bronco’s cheeks looking puffy.

The “Rescue” Incident:

Claudia noticed Bronco’s cheeks were puffy, and when she said “Bronco, drop it!”, two hamsters, both unconscious, fell out.

CPR Attempt:

Claudia panicked and performed CPR on the unconscious hamsters, and one hamster revived right away.

Second Hamster’s Revival:

The CPR didn’t seem to work on the other hamster, but Claudia put both back in their cage, and soon the second hamster also woke up.

Keeping the Secret:

They decided to keep the incident to themselves, as “hamsters don’t squeal”.

Google Search for Leonberger

Finally, I did another experiment. I typed in “Leonberger” in Google Search and my blog came up on the first page following the Wikipedia entry for Leonberger, the “People also ask” section, the American Kennel Club web page  on Leonbergers, the Things to Know section and the What people say section and then comes my Leonberger Life blog followed by 7 more sites on the first page. Interestingly my blog is ahead of PetMD, the Leonberger Club of America and the United Kennel Club.

The screenshot shows the entry for Leonberger Life … The Origins of the Leonberger Dog …. The Leonberger breed was originally created by
The screenshot shows the Google result for “Leonberger”

In conclusion, I was not that impressed by ChatGPT but I was impressed by Google AI and thought the Google search of Leonberger was fun to see.

Additon : A blogger friend of mine, Miriam Hurdle found the following information, which explains the result. Thank you so much Miriam.

Google AI has a larger database of all the information out there. Probably that’s the reason it has the details of your book and your blog. BBasically Google indicates that ChatGPT is good at idea generation and writing, etc. I think that’s why it doesn’t know the details of your book.

Unknown's avatar

Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

86 thoughts on “Our Leonberger ChatGPT and Google AI”

  1. Very complete records on Bronco! Your life with Bronco, along with the knowledge shared through your book and website, is truly remarkable and very helpful for those wanting to know more about this breed. Your search and chat just revealed that. Very interesting post, Thomas. I enjoyed reading! Light and blessings your way, my friend; have a peaceful day 🙏✨

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    2. This is such a fascinating comparison of ChatGPT and Google AI! Your detailed exploration really highlights the strengths and quirks of both tools. It’s amazing how Google AI pulled in such specific details about Bronco and your blog—what a fun discovery! Thanks for sharing this insightful experiment!

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  2. Seems both of these places have good information for the most part for your questions. I’ve never tried the chat thing. The google AI one is pretty fast with the answers. I like to make up stuff to see what it says for fun. Where do you find the chat thing? 🙂

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    1. For ChatGPT I used https://chatgpt.com/ and I stayed logged out, which gives you the lesser version of ChatGPT. However, you can create an account and login, a paid account and then invoke it through the openai website to get a ChatGPT version with more layers and neurons. However, for Google AI you just ask a question in Google so to keep it fair I used the basic ChatGPT.

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    1. Yes you are right. I’ve tried in other contexts too and I’ve seen ChatGPT and perhaps Google AI getting it wrong. They are just scrubbing internet and if that information is too vague or perhaps wrong they get it wrong.

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        1. I was curious and then surprised to see how much both AI knew. I was less impressed with the standard ChatGPT (version 3.5). However, you can create an account, a paid account, and use the one on the openai website to get a more powerful/newer ChatGPT version (4), but then it would not be a fair comparison.

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    1. Thank you so much Kymber. Yes Miriam pointed out to me that Google AI has access to more information and that ChatGPT is good at things like writing stories. That might be why I got a story from ChatGPT instead of the truth.

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        2. Even though my name is not that common I have to compete with a famous Thomas Wikman, a renowned conductor in Chicago who passed away in 2023. However, if I use my full name including the middle name as in “Thomas Stig Wikman”, then it is mostly about me.

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  10. It’s very interesting, Thomas! Google AI has a larger database of all the information out there. Probably that’s the reason it has the details of your book and your blog. I just Google (hahaha) what ChatGPT is good at. Basically Google ChatGPT is good at idea generation and writing, etc. I think that’s why it doesn’t know the details of your book.

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    1. Yes I’ve heard about that Miriam. Pirating books to train AI is shady. It reminds of the movie ExMachina. At my company we (inluding me) used 100’000’s of mail addresses on envelopes to train AI algorithms (but not the kinds used for Google AI and ChatGPT). However, we paid for all those images or brought mail from home. We also wrote postcards to ourselves so we could train the AI. Just snatching people’s mail without asking is not ethical and the same with books.

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        1. I did not see the robots serving meals in China during Covid but I do believe AI and robots will keep replacing humans in various ways. A friend of mine had surgery and it was done by a robot. Hopefully it will not happen so fast that it will be difficult for society to adjust.

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          1. Let me research on it to see if the video is still there. I watched a lot of discussion about AI on YouTube. The major point they made was that AI is not human. It makes mistakes. It doesn’t have judgement and doesn’t make moral decisions. They do emphasize AI doesn’t make moral decisions.

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      1. Chaplin: “Our Dada said he just went and asked ChatGPT about Dennis again and got solid answers about him and his real-life sidekicks Trixie, Tucker, and Trouble the Kitty. Then he asked about Dennis’s imaginary friends, expecting to hear about the mouse, Mr. Nibbles the guinea pig, Spicoli the stoner German Shepherd, and others, and that is when ChatGPT went off the rails and made up a whole bunch of imaginary imaginary friends. Still, it was an improvement! Now Dada says he can get a blog post out of it. He is always looking for blog material, that Dada …”

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  14. Thanks for sharing your experience with Chat GPT and Google AI. Interestingly, I’ve been playing with Google AI recently trying to see if it could help me answer a question I’ve been curious about. In 2001, I wrote a short story called “The Slayers,” which was a retelling of Moby-Dick but with an airship crew hunting dragons instead of a sailing ship hunting whales. It appeared in Realms of Fantasy magazine alongside stories by Harlan Ellison and Alan Dean Foster. In other words, it was a well-circulated national publication.

    I asked Google AI what was the first adaptation of Moby-Dick with dragons. Its answer was the 2011 movie Age of the Dragons starring Danny Glover. I’ve seen the movie, but it came out a decade after my short story. I know of at least two other stories where airship crews hunt dragons, again both published after mine. I think it’s possible mine might be the first, but I’d like to find out for sure. Unfortunately Google AI didn’t prove very helpful.

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    1. That is interesting. As Miriam above pointed out “Google AI has a larger database of all the information out there. Basically Google indicates that ChatGPT is good at idea generation and writing, etc”. That’s why in my case ChatGPT was making up a story about Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle saving hamsters from a fire, while Google AI told the true story. So if you find something it will probably be via Google AI. I am sorry you did not find much yet. Sometimes it is about formulating the question the right way.

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  16. My wife’s theory is that when I asked ChatGPT about Dennis’s “Imaginary Friends” it thought I was asking it to make friends up, which it proceeded to do. Then when I asked it about his actual imaginary friends from the blog (the mouse, Spicoli, Mr. Nibbles, Vermin) it was like, “Oh, those imaginary friends!” and proceeded to tell me about them with only minimal fabrications. I swear it’s almost like talking to a person these days …

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    1. That is quite interesting. I should say though that ChatGPT got the Bronco-Hamster story quite wrong even though my question was very specific, whilst Google AI got it right. Like Miriam was saying ChatGPT has less information and is creative. But maybe your wife is right. Maybe it thinks that making up a story is what it is supposed to do if it lacks the information.

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  17. I’ve only ever tried Chat GPT with pretty mixed results (I asked it to write something that had to adhere to certain rules and see what it came out with) but have never tried Google AI. I must have to give it a go. Thanks, Thomas!

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  22. For once google is genius for putting your site ahead of petmd!

    AI’s wobbly accuracy is troubling but then again the same can be said of the internet before. The fact that either gets things nearly correct is more dangerous than if they simply got everything incorrect…

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    1. Yes I agree. It is easy to think that AI like CharGPT is always right but when AI does not have enough information or the question is vague it can be spectacularly wrong and dangerous to trust. AI is not smart like people, just very good at scrubbing internet information.

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  23. Btw saw a Newfoundland dog the other day. 😳 more related to bear than dog or even horse! Was Bronco similar?

    Just a thought. Have you written how you’ve acquired such a range of dog sizes?

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    1. Yes, in fact, Leonbergers are typically bigger than Newfoundland dogs and they are related. Leonbergers are more energetic than Newfoundland dogs but they have the same calm and friendly personality, and both dogs are great swimmers and have webbed paws. If we are to believe Hermann Essig the original breeder of Leonbergers, he used 50% Saint Bernards, 25% Newfoundland dogs (or more) and 25% Great Pyrenees. However, since Leonbergers were used to revitalize Newfoundland dogs they are probably more similar than those 25% indicate. In my book I wrote about the history of Leonbergers. But the best book on Leonberger history is Leonberger by Caroline Bliss-Isberg, ISBN 978-1943824243. It features hundreds of pages of Leonberger history. It is expensive though.

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        1. Yes if you look at the pictures at the very top you’ll see my wife (she is a medium sized woman) with Bronco in her lap. They are sitting in the sofa. He was 167lbs in that picture. He was a bit overweight but some Leonbergers weigh that much without being overweight.

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