The AI Chatbot 🤖 That Summarized My 100-Page Report 📄 in Seconds ⏰

EDITOR’S NOTE

Hello Nanobiters!

Have you ever been scammed with a fake note at a shopping mall?

I was; last weekend! All my happy smiles from the shopping spree turned into sad frowns when I came home to find that there was a duplicate 500 rupee note in the wad of cash in my wallet.

There was a sinking feeling of “what now!“ The lines at the bank were out the door, and who had time to wade through pages and pages of official documents to figure out what to do? Bank customer care numbers that I found online didn’t let me talk to a human no matter how many times I pressed “nine.” 😟 

That’s when it dawned upon me that I have AI. I looked for AI tools that can parse RBI documents and help me with my situation. I came across a lot of tools online. Shocker! 😛 

Finally picked a tool. I did a quick upload of the RBI's guidelines, asked a simple question ("Where can I report counterfeit money?"), and bam – the chatbot served up the exact information I needed. Problem solved, money recovered, and fake bills out of circulation! 😌 

That got me thinking: how many times have we all struggled to find the needle of information in a haystack of PDFs?

Whether it's dense research papers, legal contracts, or even just those lengthy user manuals we never read... it's a universal frustration.

But guess what? The tide is turning!

Today's newsletter is all about the AI-powered chatbots that are making PDFs smarter, more interactive, and way easier to navigate. Get ready to discover how these tools can transform your workflow, unlock hidden insights, and maybe even save you from a frustrating situation or two! 😉

Together with 

Chat PDF by SLIKSAFE

We're thrilled to bring you today's edition of Nanobits in collaboration with SlikSafe, the innovators behind a leading AI chatbot for PDFs, ChatPDF. This partnership allows us to dive deeper into the world of AI-powered document interaction and bring you the latest insights and tools for maximizing your productivity.

AI CHATBOTS THAT TALK TO YOUR PDFs

Imagine having a conversation with your PDFs, asking questions, getting summaries, or even extracting specific bits of information. Can you imagine the amount of effort and time you can save?

AI chatbots for PDFs are the new frontier in document interaction. These intelligent tools leverage the power of artificial intelligence to understand, process, and respond to your queries about PDF documents. They're not just glorified search functions; they're virtual assistants designed to make your life easier.

What can a good AI chatbot for PDFs do?

• Summarize: Condense lengthy reports or research papers into concise takeaways.

• Extract Information: Pull out specific data points, figures, or quotes without manually combing through the entire document.

• Answer Questions: Respond to your queries about the PDF's content, almost like having a conversation with an expert.

• Translate (Potentially): Convert PDFs from one language to another, opening up a world of information.

• Edit (Potentially): Some advanced tools might even allow you to modify the text directly within the PDF.

Why is AI perfect for this?

If you are wondering how these chatbots work, here’s a simple low-down of the tech stack powering their operation:

• Natural Language Processing (NLP): This is the linguistic engine of the chatbot. NLP enables it to understand your questions, even if they're phrased in everyday language, and generate responses that sound natural and informative.

• Optical Character Recognition (OCR): Many PDFs, especially older ones, are essentially images of text, not searchable digital documents. OCR comes to the rescue by transforming those images into text that the AI can understand and analyze.

• Machine Learning (ML): This is where the "learning" in AI comes in. ML algorithms enable the chatbot to continuously improve its performance by analyzing user interactions and feedback. The more you use it, the smarter it gets.

• Large Language Models (LLMs): These are massive AI models trained on vast amounts of text data. LLMs provide the foundation for understanding complex language patterns, context, and nuances, allowing the chatbot to generate highly relevant and informative responses.

Together, these technologies create a powerful AI chatbot that can not only understand your questions but also delve into the depths of your PDFs to find the answers you need. It's like having a research assistant, a translator, and a librarian all rolled into one convenient tool.

NANOBITS EXPERIMENTS

For today’s newsletter, I tried out Chat PDF by SlikSafe, ChatGPT-4o, Gemini Advanced, Acrobat AI Assitant, and Subtl.ai. Let’s take a look at how each of them performs:

For the experiment, I uploaded the PDF of the Budget for 2024-25 presented by the Honorable Finance Minister of India. I posed the following question:

ChatGPT 4o

This is a comprehensive result which also talks about how the changes made in the budget are going to affect the salaried employees. This is not a comprehensive list though.

With ChatGPT-4o open for all, you can go ahead and upload your documents and ask the necessary questions. Do keep in mind that you don’t upload any sensitive information on the platform.

You can also try out more Chat with PDF AI bots from the GPT library. You might get rate-limited on the number of inputs and size of the file, but you will get enough credits to these tools out for free.

Acrobat AI Assistant

This was released this February 2024 and has been a pleasant addition to the Adobe suite. Although there have been rumors about the AI scanning your documents without the user’s knowledge or permission, Adobe has squashed those doubts in a Techradar article.

Let’s see its magic unfold:

The response is not satisfactory whatsoever!

The best part about this tool is that it provides an overview/summary of the document at the start of the chat and prompts you with relevant questions that you ask the document.

On certain occasions, this tool has worked well for me but I guess today was just a bad day.

You get 6 free questions, post which you have to pay INR 690 per month. This is an introductory offer that will last till September 2024.

Subtl.ai

Subtl AI claims to be the next “Perplexity” for Enterprise AI. And, I must say the response to my query is quite impressive.

Can you see how the tool highlighted only the changes and not the whole information? It did miss a few important announcements but that can be dealt with by better prompting, I guess!

Nevertheless, you can upload your documents or videos or links to documents and ask away your doubts and queries.

The best part about the tool is that it’s safe and secure!

Chat PDF by SlikSafe

Finally the moment we were all waiting for!

Well, not bad. This is almost the same response as ChatGPT 4o. The reference links however are not clickable so there is no way I can check if the right sections of the budget have been referenced.

However, it offers a lot of free credits. You can experiment all you want.
Once your credits dry up, you can get a free pass for 24 hours at $2 and a monthly subscription at $23.

Not too pleased with the pricing since ChatGPT-4o provides this feature and much more for almost the same price.

I tried this tool for a few more use cases:

1. Animal Farm Summary

2. Summarising key takeaways from Gartner Report on AI-Readiness framework

3. Opinion on the New Broadcasting Bill 2024 [I ran out of my free credits here]

Gemini Advanced

Pretty much the same result with a minor change in the way the response has been structured.

My Verdict

🥇 Subtl.ai
🥈 ChatGPT-4o & Chat PDF by Slik Safe
🥉 Gemini Advanced

The verdict is based on the particular question that’s been mentioned above. Since the output generated by AI platforms is probabilistic and not deterministic, you might have a different experience.

WHO SHOULD USE CHAT WITH PDFs?

These tools can be used by anyone with lots of PDFs! It saves time and increases productivity by interacting with PDFs conversationally.

PARTING THOUGHTS

After experimenting with all these chatbots, it's clear that the PDF revolution is well underway. These AI-powered tools are about more than just convenience; they're unlocking the true potential of information, making it accessible, digestible, and actionable.

Gone are the days of endless scrolling, frustrating keyword searches, and tedious manual summarization. AI chatbots empower us to extract knowledge effortlessly, saving us precious time and mental energy.

Whether you're a researcher delving into academic papers, a lawyer scrutinizing legal documents, or simply someone looking for a recipe in a PDF cookbook, these tools have something to offer everyone.

By democratizing access to information, AI chatbots for PDFs are leveling the playing field, making complex knowledge more readily available to all. They're enhancing productivity across industries, enabling professionals to focus on higher-level tasks while leaving the information extraction to their AI-powered assistants.

So, what are your experiences with AI chatbots for PDFs? Have you found them to be game-changers in your work or personal life?

We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, and success stories. Share your experiences in the comments below or connect with us on social media.