Toward the end of 2022, Quora launched its very own AI chatbot titled “Poe.” Centered around answering users’ questions and being created from a knowledge-based perspective, Poe AI was structured to become a potential rival to OpenAI’s GPT-based chatbot. Quora, unlike many other firms, was quick to launch the service and was among the first movers that reacted to ChatGPT’s increasing popularity and how it had galvanized the market for AI once more. Unlike several other chatbots that derive their information from a single language model or framework, the Poe chatbot diversifies its sources and functions using several different LLMs from different firms. Apart from being an answering engine for users looking to find information, Quora’s Poe is also a chatbot aggregator, which allows users to converse with multiple chatbots at the same time. While there exist numerous other alternatives that function on the same principle, Poe was among the first to conjure the concept and proceeded to implement it effectively.
With a firm footing in the internet space, Quora looks to add more functionality to its social question-and-answer platform that has connected people across the world. As opposed to training Poe AI chat on existing answers on the platform, the creators chose an alternative route that would prevent any potential challenges with copyright or data privacy issues. As companies remain invested in furthering their push toward AI and related services such as AI-backed search engines, Poe has been a unique yet successful offering that is capable of serving Quora’s 400 million monthly users seamlessly. The subsequent sections traverse the various facets of the unique interface and its key technical traits.
Quora Poe, Sage AI, and an Aggregation of LLMs
Poe allows users to ask questions, generate code, and also writes short bits of text.
Poe is an abbreviation for “Platform for Open Exploration.” Much like its name, Poe AI aims to provide users with precise and succinct information for the questions they pose to the chatbot. Apart from generic conversational abilities, Poe also brings to the table the ability to answer questions and write code. Alongside Quora’s in-house Sage AI bot, it also integrates altered versions of ChatGPT via GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models, Google’s PaLM language models, and Anthropic’s Claude chatbot. Presented as a chatbot aggregator, Poe allows its users to chat with all of these bots, revealing their distinct styles and “personalities.” While the respective chatbots and language models come with their sets of limitations and drawbacks, the ability to choose between these options remains unique to Poe AI. The recent integration of GPT-4 and Claude 2 has also brought more advanced models to the interface. However, it must be noted that these models are available only to paid users, with subscriptions being $20 for a month and $200 for a year. Users can first avail of a 7-day trial before subscribing. Following their purchase, each user is entitled to 600 GPT-4 messages and 1000 Claude 2 messages a month. Crossing the limit often leads to delayed responses and increased chances of hallucination, based on interface traffic.
Unlike other chatbots present on the platform, Sage AI is a dedicated general knowledge chatbot that functions to answer questions surrounding generic trivia and to generate text alongside code for users that might need it. Sage is currently still based on the GPT-3 language model offered by ChatGPT and comes with the same limitations such as its data cut-off date being limited to September 2021. Quora also operates another bot named Dragonfly, which runs on a different set of parameters and neural networks compared to the rest. While open-source competitors such as Hugging Face and Stability AI are focused on increasing the generalized accessibility of chatbots, Poe’s use case is centered around providing users with a holistic experience of interacting with more than one chatbot on a single platform.
Using Poe and Its Features
Poe comes in both free and paid subscription tiers for its users.
Poe was initially launched only to a small group of Quora users and the app remained invite-only. The same trend also continued following the iOS application’s launch in December 2022. By February 2023, the application had been opened to the larger public, before the company rolled out the platform for desktop browsers a month later, followed soon by Poe’s Android application. The mobile applications for Poe also allow users to view and share their prompts and chatbot responses to a feed. This allows users to interact with other users’ experiences and also take cues on prompts that work and those that don’t. Looking to balance human intellect and artificial intelligence, the creators are looking to maximize interactions and enhance these tools’ grounding in reality. So far, Poe AI is faster than its counterparts. However, the chatbots on the application, such as ChatGPT, are almost just like their original counterparts on the OpenAI platform and are just as prone to the same pitfalls like AI bias.
Poe’s interface is also rather abuzz and is often populated with suggestions and other users’ experiences. These features are useful for developers looking to improve the interface and these chatbots’ functionalities based on user experience and preferences. While Quora’s Poe might not be the ideal choice when it comes to AI writing or even in use cases such as coding, it still provides a breezy experience on mobile devices, making it easily accessible to users across the board.
Future Scope and Interfaces with Multiple LLMs
Chatbot interfaces with multiple LLMs have caught on and are growing in popularity.
Quora has certainly spearheaded a new brand of chatbot interfaces that seek to integrate multiple different language models. This has indeed kickstarted a trend where other developers have also begun following suit, with platforms such as Chatall being a famed example. As competition among diverse creators increases to create better chatbots to outcompete growing rivalries in the market, more platforms such as Poe AI are bound to make their mark. However, the tenets of responsible AI must be borne in mind, and both firms as well as developers need to pay close attention to its principles. The continued proliferation of multiple language model-based platforms will also allow users and researchers to better understand how different models behave in response to similar prompts.
FAQs
1. Is Quora Poe Free?
Quora’s Poe AI is available in both free and paid subscription plans. While the former remains limited to older language models such as GPT-3, 3.5, and Claude’s base version, the paid subscription provides access to the newer GPT-4 and Claude 2 language models. Poe’s subscription plans cost $20 for one month and $200 for a year.
2. What’s the limit on Quora Poe?
Poe’s paid version comes with a limit that restricts users to 600 GPT-4 messages and 1000 Claude 2 messages per month. While the free tier on Poe does not come with limits, it remains restricted to older language models and is also slightly slower than paid subscriptions.
3.Does Poe use GPT?
Quora’s Poe chatbot uses OpenAI’s GPT series of language models. The platform’s in-house bot Sage uses GPT-3 and 3.5, while also offering a truncated version of ChatGPT that operates GPT-3.5 and GPT-4.