AI Essentials Course — Phase 1: Foundations
Session 03: Exploring a New AI — Google Gemini
Meet your second AI platform, understand how Gemini differs from ChatGPT, and learn to evaluate AI tools by comparing their responses side by side.
Learning Objectives
What You'll Learn
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Navigate to Google Gemini and create or sign in to a free Google account
- Recognize key differences between Gemini and ChatGPT
- Ask the same questions across both platforms and compare the responses
- Explain why having multiple AI tools is valuable for academic work
Platform Access
Getting Started with Google Gemini
Follow these steps to access Google Gemini and get ready for today's lesson.
- Open your browser and go to https://gemini.google.com.
- If you have a Gmail or Google account, click "Sign in" and enter your Google email and password. Gemini is made by Google, so any Google account gives you free access.
- If you don't have a Google account, click "Create account" and follow the steps. It only takes a few minutes and is completely free.
- Once signed in, you'll see Gemini's chat interface — similar to ChatGPT, with a text input box and a clean, simple design.
- You may be offered a quick tour of features. Feel free to click through it, or simply close it and start chatting.
- Tip: If you have ChatGPT open in another browser tab, you can easily switch between them to compare responses during this session.
Free Account Required
All platforms used in this course offer free accounts with no credit card required. If you already have an account, simply sign in. The free tier gives you everything you need to complete this session.
Core Lesson
Today's Lesson
Read through this lesson carefully before starting the practice exercises below.
Congratulations on reaching Session 3! You've already learned the basics of AI conversation and how to structure a good prompt. Now it's time to meet a new AI: Google Gemini. Just as there are many different brands of cars, there are many AI tools — and each one has its own personality, strengths, and weaknesses. Learning to work with more than one AI is a valuable skill for any serious learner.
Gemini is Google's AI assistant, and it's deeply integrated with Google's ecosystem. This means Gemini is particularly strong at connecting to real-time information — when connected to the internet, it can draw on current data, recent news, and Google's vast index of web content. ChatGPT, while also able to search the web, approaches conversations with a slightly different voice and reasoning style. Neither is strictly "better" — they simply shine in different situations.
One thing you'll notice right away is that Gemini's interface feels a bit different from ChatGPT's. The visual design is cleaner and more Google-like. When you type a question, Gemini may format its response differently — sometimes using headers, sometimes bold text, sometimes bullet points without being asked. This reflects how each company has trained its AI to communicate.
The smartest approach to AI tools is to think of them as a toolkit rather than a single Swiss Army knife. Imagine a researcher who uses one database for finding journal articles, another for news sources, and a third for government data. Each database has what the others don't. AI works the same way. In later sessions, we'll explore exactly which tool works best for which type of task. But you can only make those comparisons if you've spent time with each tool.
Today's exercise is specifically designed to help you see the differences between Gemini and ChatGPT side by side. You'll ask the exact same questions you tried in Session 1 — a factual question, a personal advice question, and a creative question — and compare the results. You may be surprised by how different (and how similar) the responses are.
As you read and compare today, don't worry about which answer is "right." Instead, think about which response felt more helpful to you, which was clearer, and which seemed more suited to your particular way of thinking. These personal preferences are important — they'll guide you toward the AI tools that work best for your learning style.
Hands-On Practice
Practice Exercise
Follow these steps in Google Gemini. Take your time — there's no rush. Learning happens through doing.
- Open Gemini at gemini.google.com and sign in.
- Ask Gemini the same factual question from Session 1: "What are the main differences between a master's degree and a doctoral degree?" Read the response carefully.
- Ask Gemini the same personal advice question: "I am 65 years old and thinking about going back to school for a graduate degree. What should I consider before applying?"
- Ask Gemini the same creative question: "Write a short, encouraging poem for someone who is returning to school later in life."
- Compare Gemini's responses to ChatGPT's responses from Session 1. Write down at least two specific differences you noticed — in tone, length, format, or content.
- Bonus step: Ask both AIs the same question about your specific area of academic interest and compare. Which response would be more useful for a graduate paper?
Try These
Example Prompts to Try
Copy any of these prompts directly into Google Gemini and see what happens. Feel free to modify them to match your own academic interests.
Summary
Key Takeaways
- Google Gemini is a free, powerful AI from Google that offers a different style of response than ChatGPT — neither is better; they have different strengths.
- Comparing responses from multiple AI platforms to the same question is a valuable critical-thinking skill called cross-referencing.
- Different AI tools have different personalities, formatting styles, and areas of strength — exploring them helps you build your personal AI toolkit.
- For academic work, using more than one AI platform can give you a richer, more balanced perspective on any topic.
Asking the Same Question Across Platforms to Compare Quality
You've learned that different AI tools respond differently to the same prompt — and that comparing those responses builds critical thinking and helps you choose the right tool for each task. This cross-platform comparison skill will serve you throughout your graduate career.