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Windows Central

Technology

Kevin Okemwa

ChatGPT's human-like Advanced Voice Mode feature can say “Sorry I’m late” in over 50 languages — but the EU is reportedly turning a deaf ear to OpenAI's plea because it can detect user emotion

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What you need to know

OpenAI's long-anticipated Advanced Voice mode has shipped to broad availability for all ChatGPT Plus and Teams users.
It won't be available for users in the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein, presumably because of the stringent EU AI Act that prohibits the use of AI systems that can recognize a user's emotions.
The feature is buried behind a $20 dollar subscription, and you should've received a pop-up notification that you have access to Advanced Voice mode while using ChatGPT.

OpenAI's Advanced Voice mode for its ChatGPT AI-powered chatbot is arguably the most-anticipated feature among users this year. We first got to learn about the neat feature during the ChatGPT maker's Spring event, where it unveiled its "magical" GPT-4o model with reasoning capabilities across audio, vision, and text.

While showcasing the models capabilities, OpenAI indicated it would ship the Advanced Voice mode feature in June, but the date was delayed to July over safety concerns, including improving its ability to detect and refuse harmful content.

However, the long-anticipated feature didn't ship in July either. ChatGPT's Advanced Voice mode feature only started shipping to ChatGPT Plus and Teams users earlier this week, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirming that the rollout phase is already complete. Users with access to the neat feature should've seen a pop-up message while using the ChatGPT indicating that they have access to Advanced Voice mode.

rollout completed early, amazing work by the team!(except for jurisdictions that require additional external review) https://t.co/ENCSL8VWe6September 25, 2024

The Advanced Voice mode feature ships with five new voices, custom instructions, improved conversational speed, smoothness, and accents in select foreign languages. It's worth noting that the feature isn't available the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein yet. You'll also need a $20 monthly subscription to access the feature.

Why ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode isn't available in the EU

ChatGPT on Android (Image credit: Shutterstock)

While OpenAI doesn't categorically indicate why its Advanced Voice Mode feature won't be available for ChatGPT Plus and Teams users despite having the $20 monthly subscription, X user Dean W Ball highlighted a section of the EU's stringent AI Act as a plausible explanation (via TechRadar). The specific clause restricts "the placing on the market, the putting into service for this specific purpose, or the use of AI systems to infer emotions of a natural person."

Under a strict reading of the AI Act, ChatGPT advanced voice is *illegal* in EU workplaces and schools because the system can recognize a user’s emotions. That’s prohibited by the AI Act. https://t.co/w7697M4VBa pic.twitter.com/eDdJr7Y01USeptember 24, 2024

As such, it's quite possible that the EU has been left out of the fray because the Advanced Voice mode feature has the capability of recognizing the user's emotions, which is, therefore, in violation of the EU AI Act.

As you may know, the feature leverages OpenAI's "magical" GPT-4o model to facilitate quick responses and interpretation of text, visuals, and audio. Based on the demos flooding the internet, the feature is quite advanced and feels like you are having a conversation with a human being.

It's unclear if the feature will eventually ship to users in the EU, but it seems the EU AI Act will bar sophisticated AI advances from widely spreading across the EU region.

Elsewhere, the EU AI Act recently protected users in the EU, EEA, and Switzerland from Microsoft's employment-focused social network, LinkedIn, from secretly using their data to train its AI models.