Sabrina Ortiz of ZDNet on the strengths of ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot & Claude

Jul 27, 2025

🧠 SABRINA ORTIZ INTERVIEW – SENIOR EDITOR, ZDNET

Covers AI daily
- “I lead our AI coverage. I write about AI every day, test tools, read research—it’s all AI, all the time.”
Focus on simplifying complex tech
- Specializes in making generative AI tools understandable and useful for everyday readers.

Most popular and mainstream
- “It basically became synonymous with AI—it’s what kicked off the chatbot boom in November 2022.”
Capabilities
- “It can do everything from answering questions to writing songs, essays, even full research papers.”
Beware of imposters
- “If you’re paying to download it, it’s not the real one. Go to OpenAI’s website or get the official app.”
Privacy tip
- “You can turn off model training in the settings. I do that personally because I love ChatGPT, but I don’t want my data used.”

Deeply embedded in Google products
- “You’ve probably already used it. It powers AI overviews right in Google Search.”
- “It’s also starting to pop up in Google Docs, Drive, and Gmail—like side panel summaries.”
Advantages
- “It pulls from Google Search, which people already trust. That’s a big edge.”
Potential friction
- “Some people like that it shows up in your tools automatically. Others feel like, ‘Hey, I didn’t ask for this.’”

Deep Office integration
- “Copilot is built right into Word, Excel, PowerPoint—it’s great if you’re in the Microsoft ecosystem.”
Former edge in model access
- “For a while, Copilot gave you GPT-4 for free, while you had to pay for it in ChatGPT.”
Current state
- “It’s not as competitive as it used to be for standalone chatbot use. But great for Office power users.”

Best for privacy
- “Claude never trains on your data—that’s their whole value prop.”
Strong for coding
- “Developers love it. I’ve heard from beginners and pros that Claude is amazing for writing and troubleshooting code.”
Still relevant
- “Even with the big names like OpenAI and Google, Claude is holding strong thanks to privacy and dev tools.”

Where to turn off training
- Rich: “Go to Settings > Data Controls > toggle off ‘Improve the model for everyone.’”
- Sabrina: “It’s a great way to use the tool without giving up your data.”

Gemini inside your files
- “Gemini can now summarize your PDFs and docs automatically—right inside Google Drive.”
Reactions vary
- “Some people love that it’s there. Others are like, stop throwing this at me when I didn’t ask for it.”

Embedded convenience
- “If you use Word or Excel, Copilot just shows up as a side tool. That’s powerful if you’re doing work already in those platforms.”

Sabrina’s assessment
- “If you care about privacy: Claude. If you live in Google: Gemini. If you’re in Microsoft Office: Copilot. If you want the best all-around chatbot: ChatGPT—with training turned off.”
AI is evolving fast
- “Every week, there’s something new. These tools are changing quickly—and that’s part of what makes covering them so fun.”