OpenAI has been in the news due to the unrest that followed the ouster of Sam Altman as CEO on Friday. Since then, almost all OpenAI employees had threatened to resign and demanded the resignation of the board. The AI company named former Twitch boss Emmett Shear as its new CEO, and Altman was hired by Microsoft to lead AI research at the company. However, following discussions with OpenAI’s board, Altman has now agreed to return as CEO at the company he co-founded. Amid the chaos, OpenAI has continued to update its most popular product. The company announced on Wednesday that ChatGPT with voice would be available for free to all users of the app. The voice calling feature was previously rolled out to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise subscribers.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), OpenAI announced that voice support had been added to the ChatGPT app for all free users. “Download the app on your phone and tap the headphones icon to start a call,” the message added. In its post, OpenAI included a video of the feature working, talking to a ChatGPT user.
ChatGPT with voice is now available to all free users. Download the app on your phone and tap the headphones icon to start a call.
Sound on 🔊 pic.twitter.com/c5sCFDAWU6
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 21, 2023
Gadgets 360 can confirm that voice support has been rolled out to the ChatGPT app on both iOS and Android smartphones. The feature appears as a headphone icon at the bottom right of the chat window. After tapping the icon, users will be presented with an introductory “Chat with Voice” screen, providing information about the voice calling feature. It also clarifies that all voice chats will be saved as transcripts in the chat history. However, audio clips from chats are not saved. The app also automatically detects the language. Users can also select a preferred language in Settings for more accurate voice detection.
The ChatGPT app then allows users to choose a preferred vote for the feature from an option of five votes. After the microphone gives permission, the Voice Chat feature is set up, allowing users to have free-flowing voice conversations with ChatGPT. However, keep in mind that users on the free plan won’t be able to get real-time updates such as from voice assistants like Siri or Google Assistant, as the app is limited to accessing available data until January 2022.
Voice calling was first rolled out to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise members in September. At the time, OpenAI had said it had worked with professional voice actors to offer the new feature. The voice-enabled chat on the ChatGPT app answers questions by converting spoken questions into text that the chatbot can understand. The answers are then converted into audio format using the company’s new text-to-speech (TTS) technology.
ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise customers also get the added functionality of browsing the web and obtaining real-time data through ChatGPT, after the information deadline. OpenAI has said that the feature would also be extended to all users soon.