This week, OpenAI announced it has started rolling out advanced Voice Mode to ChatGPT Plus users. While not all Plus subscribers will see the feature right away—OpenAI is reserving the initial round for a small pool of testers—the company will continue to release the update to more users as time goes on, giving more paying customers the chance to (maybe?) experience the AI future the movies promised us.
ChatGPT has had a Voice Mode for some time, allowing users to have the same interactions with ChatGPT that they'd normally have via text, but by speaking their queries aloud; ChatGPT will then "speak" its responses. Advanced mode is different, though: According to OpenAI, this grander version of the vocal chatbot is much more natural, allowing you to have a conversation in real-time with ChatGPT. The company says you can interrupt the bot whenever you want to change the direction of the conversation, and it should be able to understand the tone of your voice, rather than simply the contents of your questions and requests. If it all works as advertised, talking to ChatGPT should be the closest we've come yet to having a true-to-life conversation with an AI.
The company first showed off Advanced Voice Mode in May, exhibiting these abilities via a series of live demos. At the time, the company was promoting the "Sky" voice, which sounded remarkably like Scarlett Johansson, prompting comparisons to the 2013 movie Her, in which a man falls in love with his AI assistant, perhaps a bit too well. The company soon paused use of the voice following criticism that it sounded too much like Johansson's. OpenAI denied using the actor's actual voice for the service, but the company clearly knew there were similarities, as evidenced by CEO Sam Altman posting simply "her" on X shortly before the presentation:
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Based on the demos, the bot does try to match your tone of voice, and does allow for some real-time back and forth in conversation. However, the demo certainly wasn't perfect: The bot stopped speaking abruptly when it thought it was being interrupted (even when it wasn't), and the tone of its responses at times could be a bit too friendly, verging on flirtatious. We'll have to see how well it actually performs now that it's rolling out to actual consumers.
In order to have a chance to try advanced Voice Mode sooner rather than later, you need to be a ChatGPT Plus subscriber. Voice Mode will be available for free users in the future, but this initial rollout is only for customers paying OpenAI $20 per month.
That said, paying doesn't guarantee access to the alpha for advanced Voice Mode. OpenAI is rolling this feature out gradually at first, so whether you get access to it now will simply be the luck of the draw. When you do, however, you should notice a new "Try advanced Voice Mode" pop-up appear above the Voice Mode icon in the ChatGPT app. Tap it and you'll see a "You're invited to try advanced Voice Mode" message explaining the feature. Tap Continue, and you'll now be able to converse with ChatGPT in advanced mode.
