You’ll soon be able to ask ChatGPT for advice using nothing but your voice and have the popular AI chatbot talk right back to you, courtesy of the latest update.
Opt-in isn’t automatic just yet. However, if you want to enable the new feature you’ll first need to open up the app, go to Settings, and then to New Features. At the time of writing, it also appeared that the new voice chat feature hadn’t been fully rolled out to users in all regions.
Premium ChatGPT subscribers received access to voice chat in September on Android and iOS. However, it is now set to be rolled out to all users, regardless of whether they choose to pay the roughly £18 subscription fee for ChatGPT in the UK.
Once enabled, users will need to tap the headphones icon to use their voice to talk with ChatGPT via the mobile app.
Users will be able to take their pick of synthetic voices to listen to, recorded by a selection of professional voice actors.
However, the new feature will not allow users to pick a synthetic voice of their choice; for example, to read a list in the voice of a particular celebrity or public figure, or what is known as a “deepfake”.
The news comes as Open AI, the company behind ChatGPT, is undergoing significant leadership changes. These include the board of directors' ousting of CEO Sam Altman, who had led the company since its inception in 2015.
Though the future of OpenAI is still very much unclear, that didn’t stop the Silicon Valley firm from cracking jokes about its own current internal changes.
In an advert on X — the social network formerly known as Twitter — advertising the new feature, one person asks: “It’s been a long night for the team, and we’re hungry. How many 16-inch pizzas should I order for 778 people?”
At the time of writing, Open AI had close to 778 employees per Linkedin, many of whom had threatened to resign following the news of Altman’s departure.
The news comes as ChatGPT seems to be rapidly picking up popularity in the UK, particularly among young people.
More than half of young people have used an AI chatbot such as ChatGPT to help them with schoolwork, emails or their job over the past year, according to a survey of 4,000 people aged between 8 and 25.
