ChatGPT can talk now, and it’s honestly a little terrifying
Just when you thought ChatGPT couldn’t get any better, it decided to evolve.
Oh, ChatGPT, there you go again.
The darling of conversational AI just took a leap forward and can now actually have a spoken conversation.
That’s honestly a little terrifying, but I’m here for it.
ChatGPT Voice Features: Because Reading is Overrated
First things first, these features are not yet currently available for everyone.
OpenAI announced a phased rollout to ChatGPT Plus users in the coming weeks. It seems like these new features might also come as DALL-E 3 is rolling out with it’s own ChatGPT integration.
How to activate ChatGPT voice
If you’re as excited about voice as we are, head over to your ChatGPT mobile app. As we mentioned, this feature is being rolled out, but is not yet available to everyone.
To check if you have it yet, go to Settings > New Features, and opt in to voice conversations.
Oh, and OpenAI didn’t just slap on a robotic voice and call it a day. They went full Hollywood, collaborating with professional voice actors.
The voices aren’t quite Morgan Freeman status, but they’re far and away better than many of the current state text-to-voice platforms out there.
What do you talk to ChatGPT about?
This is actually one of my favorite features so far. A few months ago I set up various chats with really long, detailed prompts that were engineered for specific purposes, like “Fitness CoachGPT,” “Career MentorGPT” and “Business ConsultantGPT.”
Basically those chats are now unique ChatGPT personas that are prompted to act as specialists on niche questions like “if I were Gary Vaynerchuck, what would be the next step I would take with my business?” or “based on my resume and experience, what would be good-fit consulting opportunities?”
The coolest thing about the voice release is that you can now just straight up talk to ChatGPT.
You can have a therapist in your car on the drive to work.
You can brainstorm business ideas out loud on your road trip.
You can have an ultra-smart teacher/coach/mentor in your ear as you go for a walk.
These are incredibly valuable tools to have in the toolbox, and this is just the first baby step from OpenAI in the “gradual deployment” of voice tech.
Chat about your images
ChatGPT can also now view and analyze images in the chat with a new image recognition update in the same release.
Snap a photo, tap a button, and voila! You’re now in a visual conversation with ChatGPT.
This feature is pretty cool, and I’m sure it will have a ton of applications that I don’t comprehend yet.
I did see one yesterday where someone took a picture of the random ingredients in their sparsely filled fridge and got a meal plan.
At this rate, ChatGPT will probably turn into your auto mechanic next (now THAT would be valuable).
Parting thoughts
I’ve long felt that the real groundbreaking stuff with these technologies would start happening as interfaces became more representative of actual human behavior.
Don’t get me wrong, typing on your computer is fine, but certainly doesn’t trick you into feeling like you’re talking to a friend or a business partner.
This is a good first step in that direction, and I think that carries immense benefit for people.
It’s also another case study in the product-led growth masterclass that we’ve seen from OpenAI in the past month as they’ve effectively eliminated prompt engineering, put DALL-E 3 into ChatGPT with a plus subscription, solved consistent characters, and added text rendering in images.
I have no idea what we see next from OpenAI, but I’m on the edge of my seat.
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