S3 Episode 23: ChatGPT vs Claude: Which AI is Winning the PR War?

Link to episode:

Guest: Parry Headrick
Tech PR expert & founder of CracklePR

OpenAI and Anthropic are locked in a high stakes rivalry, and the fallout is hurting public trust in AI overall. In this episode, the “We Fixed It, You’re Welcome” panel (Aaron Wolpoff, Melissa Eaton, and Chino Nnadi) sits down with veteran tech PR strategist Perry Headrick to unpack whether the ChatGPT vs Claude rivalry is a branding win or a trust disaster.

• With over 20 years of experience representing brands like AOL, Bing, Yelp, and Logitech, Perry brings sharp, no nonsense insight into why both AI giants are missing the mark with everyday users, and what they need to do to fix it.
• Why only 17% of Americans trust the people running major AI companies, and 40% consider them untrustworthy
• The origin of the OpenAI vs Anthropic rivalry, born from a philosophical split within OpenAI
• How the Super Bowl ad wars and competitive digs are backfiring on both brands
• The psychology of “AI dread” and why fear, not excitement, dominates public perception
• Why AI companies make themselves the star instead of the customer
• Perry’s real world examples: turning heads at a local Chinese restaurant with an AI generated photo, and using AI to pick better golf clubs
• The case for radical transparency over “promiseware” and vague grandiosity
• Why sycophantic AI responses (agreeing with everything, false reassurances) erode user trust
• The Claude broken links example and why owning limitations matters more than smoothing them over
• Reddit and AMAs as an underused trust building tool
• Are OpenAI and Anthropic “too big to fail,” or heading toward a Yahoo vs Google outcome

Enjoy the episode!