So does anybody know why there is a difference in cost between SayIntentions.AI and BeyondATC? Both are using AI and both are also voice APIs to generate a more human sounding voice and/or regional accents. My understanding is that SayIntentions.AI is based off of ChatGPT, while BeyondATC is not based off of ChatGPT.

Is that why SayIntentions.AI costs so much more than BeyondATC, because they have to pay a lot of money to use ChatGPT? Or is the voice API that SayIntentions.AI accessing for the voices, much more expensive than the voice API that BeyondATC is using?

 

Edited May 10, 20242 yr by abrams_tank

Good question!

Looking fwd into potential answers...

Well, SI is totally non-scripted. All requests need to be sent to ChatGPT, properly processed and then sent back to you. Everything is fluid and you can request whatever you want to the controller. 

This video clarifies a bunch of things:

Vectors to Final - May 9th - NG Taxi Data, TaxiTuner, and AutoTune Freqs (Weekly Developer Check-in) (youtube.com)

6 minutes ago, GCBraun said:

Well, SI is totally non-scripted.

Is BeyondATC partially scripted then? Does anybody know? (doesn't have to be GCBraun to answer this, anybody can answer, I am just curious)

Just curious, because it seems like BeyondATC can understand many more variations in queries/syntax than other voice based ATC programs, so there must be some element of AI involved if it can understand more more variations in queries/syntax than the past voice based ATC programs, right?

Edited May 10, 20242 yr by abrams_tank

SayIntentionsAI is using much more than just ChatGPT behind the scenes according to the Dev so the costs are much higher. They have acknowledged the cost issue and want that to come down.  I have used SI for the past 5 days and very impressed with it.  They are making updates several times a day on their end. I have noticed improvements on each flight so far (IFR flights in A320). Lots of potential with this and their announcement of the Navigraph partnership to fix the taxi issues along with user-based fixes is really cool.

1 minute ago, abrams_tank said:

Is BeyondATC partially scripted then? Does anybody know? (doesn't have to be GCBraun to answer this, anybody can answer, I am just curious)

I do believe it is as you cannot deviate from the 'script' (from what I am seeing, I do not own it).  With SI, you can request anything at any time....

29 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

Is BeyondATC partially scripted then? Does anybody know? (doesn't have to be GCBraun to answer this, anybody can answer, I am just curious)

Just curious, because it seems like BeyondATC can understand many more variations in queries/syntax than other voice based ATC programs, so there must be some element of AI involved if it can understand more more variations in queries/syntax than the past voice based ATC programs, right?

BeyondATC is pretty much scripted as far as I am aware. The voice recognition is very good and it's voices may been have generated by AI, but you cannot deviate from the plan besides changing the Altitude or requesting DCT TO. This is not that bad, considering that most regular flights do follow a strict protocol and this, may, of course, improve in the future.

Edited May 10, 20242 yr by GCBraun

BATC is very much scripted. If you do not say anything in line with your options in the bottom left corner it will break. 
 

The hope is that they will add more option to what you can say. 

Edited May 10, 20242 yr by espent

3 minutes ago, GCBraun said:

BeyondATC is pretty much scripted as far as I am aware. The voice recognition is very good and it's voices may been have generated by AI, but you cannot deviate from the plan besides changing the Altitude or requesting DCT TO. This is not that bad, considering that most regular flights do follow a strict protocol and, may, of course, improve in the future.

However BATC achieves to simulate believable spoken and understood ATC instructions for me is matterless. While I don't 100% know if it is indeed scripted I would believe that it is. Indeed in the lastest minor update (1.0.23.EA) the chanelog states that the devs have replaced  "Line up and cleared for takeoff" with "cleared for takeoff". To me this could mean that it is indeed scripted. It's possible that less processing needed by the add on will result in better optimisation, which we all want.

I have yet to come across an ATC program that's not scripted. To that end, SI is an extremely ambitious endeavor as it strays well off the beaten track. This all comes at a price though and quite a hefty one at that.

I don't know how many will be willing to pay for that degree of realism (provided SI will be able to achieve all their goals) and would opt for the cheaper options that are basically all doing the same, whether they come with a whole bunch of regional accents or not. I suppose the developers of SI are well aware of that so it's not for me to give them any advise and in all honesty, I take more interest in aviation than in bean counting.

BATC is scripted. The devs confirmed it.

Edited May 10, 20242 yr by Tuskin38

39 minutes ago, espent said:

BATC is very much scripted. If you do not say anything in line with your options in the bottom left corner it will break. 
 

The hope is that they will add more option to what you can say. 

Break? Of course it will not „break“. It will say something along the lines of „request not understood say again“ and continue working as before. I hardly do smalltalk with ATC anyway, not even to ask for the latest weather (we got AcARS for that), real life IFR is pretty much as scripted as it gets too. 

Some things still need to be added like deviations and diversions, yes.

1 hour ago, abrams_tank said:

Is BeyondATC partially scripted then? Does anybody know? (doesn't have to be GCBraun to answer this, anybody can answer, I am just curious)

Just curious, because it seems like BeyondATC can understand many more variations in queries/syntax than other voice based ATC programs, so there must be some element of AI involved if it can understand more more variations in queries/syntax than the past voice based ATC programs, right?

This video explains exactly what BATC does and how it does it:-

 

This pilot and software dev discusses the technical differences (why one costs more than the other) and which one might be best for you (last 10 minutes):-

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 20242 yr by Drebin27

If you want to see how real world ATC works, watch one of Matt Guthmiller's TBM videos. It is definitely not scripted nor "on rails". PilotEdge, using real world controllers and a limited geographic scope, are the only simulator ATC service that can currently provide this level of accuracy. SayIntentions is attempting to provide this level of ATC to the whole geographic globe. It is a very ambitious project.

The pricing structure of PilotEdge and SayIntentions are very similar. It is not cheap to provide real world ATC to the simulator. SayIntentions has a better chance of lowering the costs however.

If you never wanted to try PilotEdge or tried it and didn't like it, you are probably not a part of the market for SayIntentions (no matter what their final price or capability will be).

If the majority of your sim flying is tubeliners to big airports, scripted ATC such as BeyondATC, Pilot2ATC, etc are great solutions. If, however, you fly GA VFR or IFR you will not be satisfied with many of these software. (Pilot2ATC is the best of this bunch for GA VFR but still not able to handle all the real world possibilities in VFR flight).

My humble opinion, vote with your dollar and quit whining about cost if the solution doesn't match your practices. Thanks for listening to my TED talk.

3 hours ago, hs118 said:

If you want to see how real world ATC works, watch one of Matt Guthmiller's TBM videos. It is definitely not scripted nor "on rails". PilotEdge, using real world controllers and a limited geographic scope, are the only simulator ATC service that can currently provide this level of accuracy. SayIntentions is attempting to provide this level of ATC to the whole geographic globe. It is a very ambitious project.

The pricing structure of PilotEdge and SayIntentions are very similar. It is not cheap to provide real world ATC to the simulator. SayIntentions has a better chance of lowering the costs however.

If you never wanted to try PilotEdge or tried it and didn't like it, you are probably not a part of the market for SayIntentions (no matter what their final price or capability will be).

If the majority of your sim flying is tubeliners to big airports, scripted ATC such as BeyondATC, Pilot2ATC, etc are great solutions. If, however, you fly GA VFR or IFR you will not be satisfied with many of these software. (Pilot2ATC is the best of this bunch for GA VFR but still not able to handle all the real world possibilities in VFR flight).

My humble opinion, vote with your dollar and quit whining about cost if the solution doesn't match your practices. Thanks for listening to my TED talk.

SI is not real world ATC. It’s a LLM talking to you with all it’s known inherent flaws. No way to compare to PilotEdge