Somewhere between Sam Altman being fired, hired by Microsoft, and finally returning to OpenAI as CEO, ChatGPT got a new feature that was once available to only paying users. The AI’s ability to have voice-based conversations is now available to all users on the ChatGPT app.
So instead of typing your query into the text field, you can now tap a button and ask ChatGPT your question verbally. The AI chatbot converts your speech into text and feeds it into its Large Language Model (LLM). Similarly, it will convert the text-based answer into spoken words you can hear when it answers you back in its robotic voice. Think of it like talking to the Google Assistant or Alexa.
To get started with voice chats on ChatGPT, head to Settings> New Features on the mobile app and opt into voice conversations. Once you’ve done that, tap the headphone button in the home screen’s top-right corner and choose your preferred voice out of five different voices.
OpenAI announced the feature last evening amidst a major outage that lasted for several hours. ChatGPT was inaccessible for users worldwide on November 21, and the company has promised to share a public postmortem of what happened and how it’ll avoid a similar outage in the future.