What is Gemini? How it differs from ChatGPT and other AI assistants

If you searched "who is Gemini", the short answer is that Gemini is not a person. It is the name Google gives to its AI assistant, and to the family of AI models the assistant runs on (Google DeepMind; Gemini Apps Help). It is one of several assistants of this kind, each made by a different company and working in its own way. This page explains the differences calmly, without ranking them, and takes each product's facts from what the company itself publishes, as of 27 October 2026.

What is an AI chat assistant?

It is an app you talk to in ordinary language, by typing or speaking, which answers using a large language model: a model trained on very large amounts of text (glossary). It can help you draft a message, summarise a document, translate, or explain an idea in plain words.

But it can be confidently wrong. The International AI Safety Report 2026 lists fabricated information and flawed outputs among the current malfunctions of these systems (executive summary). So check important answers, especially answers in Arabic, as we explain in our FAQ (question 12).

Who makes the main assistants?

The table sums up what each company says about its assistant, as we checked it on 27 October 2026. The details and sources are in the paragraphs below it.

Gemini, from Google. Google's official help page lists Arabic among the languages Gemini supports, and lists Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman among the countries where the Gemini web app is available; the same page notes that the mobile app may have different availability (Google). Gemini can work with other Google services such as YouTube, according to the company's privacy page (Google).

ChatGPT, from OpenAI. OpenAI released ChatGPT on 30 November 2022 as a free research preview (OpenAI), and we follow what happened next in our ChatGPT story thread. OpenAI's help centre lists Arabic among the languages ChatGPT supports (OpenAI), and the company's list of supported countries and territories for its services includes all six GCC states (OpenAI).

Claude, from Anthropic. Anthropic's list of supported countries, which covers the Claude app and its developer platform, includes all six GCC states (Anthropic). The company's documentation lists Arabic among the languages it tests Claude on, and says Claude works in "most world languages that use standard Unicode characters" (Anthropic).

Copilot, from Microsoft. Microsoft's support page lists Arabic among Copilot's languages for typed prompts, and among its languages for voice conversations on personal accounts. It says Copilot is available "in over 170 markets around the world", but does not list the countries one by one (Microsoft, last updated September 2026). There is also a version for work, called Microsoft 365 Copilot (Microsoft).

Meta AI, from Meta. It works inside WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. Meta launched it in Arabic across the Middle East and North Africa in early February 2025, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE among the first countries and access expanding gradually (Arab News, 2 Feb 2025; Wamda, 4 Feb 2025). WhatsApp's help pages list Arabic among the languages for voice conversations with Meta AI, and note that the service "might not be available to you yet, even if others in your country have access" (WhatsApp; WhatsApp).

Assistants built in the Gulf

HUMAIN Chat (Saudi Arabia). HUMAIN, owned by the Public Investment Fund, launched HUMAIN Chat in August 2025. It runs on ALLaM 34B, a model built with Arabic as its first language (GCC AI landscape; Middle East AI News, 25 Aug 2025; Saudipedia). The app's App Store page says you can chat in Arabic or English and switch between them in the same chat, that it recognises speech in Arabic dialects "from Gulf to Maghreb", and that the model is "fully hosted and operated in Saudi" (App Store). At launch it was available inside the Kingdom, and the company said access would extend to the region and then to the rest of the world (Middle East AI News, 25 Aug 2025).

JAIS Chat (UAE). Core42, a G42 company, launched the JAIS Chat app on 13 May 2024. It is built on the Arabic-centric Jais model, works in Arabic and English, and understands several Arabic dialects (G42). The app was still listed in the UAE App Store when we checked on 27 October 2026 (App Store).

Fanar (Qatar). Fanar was developed by the Qatar Computing Research Institute at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, with support from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and was inaugurated on 10 December 2024 (HBKU). Its official website offers a chat assistant and a mobile app, and says it is "completely free to use", as of October 2026 (Fanar).

For more on the Arabic models behind these assistants, see the GCC AI landscape.

So how is Gemini different from ChatGPT?

• The company and the model. Gemini comes from Google and runs on Gemini models. ChatGPT comes from OpenAI, and Claude from Anthropic. Each runs on its own company's models.
• Where you find it. Gemini can work with Google's services, Copilot is linked to Microsoft's products, and Meta AI sits inside the messaging and social apps you already use. ChatGPT and Claude are standalone apps from two companies that specialise in AI.
• Arabic at the base. The Gulf assistants are built on models with Arabic as a main language, and HUMAIN Chat's maker says it is hosted entirely inside Saudi Arabia.
• Features change. Companies add and rename features all the time, so we do not compare features here. A practical approach is to ask two assistants the same question and compare the answers.

Privacy habits that work with any assistant

1. Keep sensitive information out. Do not type ID numbers, medical records, passwords or confidential work documents. Google itself asks for this plainly: "Please don't enter confidential information that you wouldn't want a reviewer to see or Google to use to improve our services, including machine-learning technologies" (Google).
2. Look at the settings. As of October 2026: in Gemini you can turn off the "Keep Activity" setting or use temporary chats (Google). In ChatGPT you can turn off "Improve the model for everyone" or use a temporary chat (OpenAI). In Claude, Incognito chats are not used to improve the model, and there is a model-improvement setting you control (Anthropic). In Copilot you can opt out of your conversations being used for model training and delete past conversations (Microsoft). In Meta AI you can delete chats or ask for information you shared with it to be deleted (WhatsApp).
3. Use your employer's tools for work. If your employer has approved a particular tool, use it for work documents rather than your personal accounts.
4. Check before you trust. On health, legal and money questions, treat the answer as a starting point and go back to a reliable source.

For more on your data and your rights in the Gulf, read our guide Is AI watching me? What happens to my data?, and question 9 in our FAQ.

What we don't know yet

• Which Gulf countries HUMAIN Chat has reached so far beyond Saudi Arabia. The company said at launch that access would expand, and we have not yet found an official page that lists the countries.
• How well each assistant handles Gulf dialects and local questions. Question 12 in our FAQ summarises a 2024 study, and the products have changed since then.
• What will change in the coming months. Availability, features and settings change often, and we will re-check this page every 90 days.

What this means for you

There is no need to pick "the best". These are tools from different companies, most of them work in Arabic, and all of them can make mistakes. Start with the assistant you have access to and that fits what you already use every day, keep sensitive information out of it, and check important answers.

We checked each product's facts on the company's own pages on 27 October 2026, unless stated otherwise.