You are at a party and just lost sight of the only friend you know. Now, you are standing alone awkwardly, and people are starting to give you the judgmental side-eye. You are thinking of leaving the party and returning to the safety of your own house, but wait, there is one more option. Why not dial ChatGPT and pretend you have a girlfriend for 15 mins?
What are we talking about? During the 12 Days of OpenAI Livestream, the new ChatGPT Voice Calls feature was launched. If you have a US number, you can dial the toll-free number 1-800-242-8478 to access this feature, even if you don’t have any internet access. It works just like chatting on the ChatGPT platform, like answering questions or searching the web, but in a voice-based conversation mode.
OpenAI’s chief Kevin Weil wants to make AI more user-friendly for everyone, especially folks who might struggle with tech. You don’t have to download any app or have high-speed internet, making it easier for a broader audience to get familiar with AI. This will also help in the training of the AI model to handle voice queries better, improving the model’s performance over time.
But like every good thing in this world, the ChatGPT voice calls also come with a catch. And the catch: It has no practical applications right now.
ChatGPT Voice Calls Are Cool, But Kind Of “Useless” At the Moment
The biggest criticism of this feature is the 15 minutes per month of free usage, with some users going as far as to call this a “gimmick.” While the 15-minute limit is being marketed as a neat way to dip your toes into the AI voice feature, a lot of users are feeling a bit frustrated with this limit and questioning its practical applications. One user on X made a hilarious remark about the only use of this feature is, “Involving ChatGPT in a 3-way phone call.”
However, with some minor tweaks, OpenAI can make ChatGPT voice calls actually useful.
What Users Want from ChatGPT Voice Calls?
From wanting more time limit on ChatGPT voice calls to hoping for some cool new features, here’s a rundown of what users are asking for:
- Extended Time: This shouldn’t come as a surprise! Users are demanding a higher monthly limit, like 60 minutes a month as a starting point. This will allow for meaningful conversations and increase usability.
- Roll-Over Minutes: The extended limit can be combined with a roll-over limit feature, adding a cherry on top. Rolling over the unused limits to the next month not only offers flexibility but also reduces the stress of managing the time limit.
- Usage Notifications: Right now, users can’t see how much of their 15-minute limit they’ve used up. A simple fix would be to give them a friendly heads-up about their remaining time. And maybe a gentle nudge when they’re almost out of time.
- Support for Different Languages: During the 12 Days of OpenAI livestream, they dropped some exciting news—this feature is set to expand to way more countries soon. Everyone is hoping for it to support non-English languages too. It aligns perfectly with OpenAI’s mission to make AI accessible to everyone, everywhere.
In our opinion, the possibility of ChatGPT voice calls is unlimited and is truly a breakthrough development. As the feature becomes more robust, we can expect to see advanced features like tailored interactions and emotion detections. Although there are doubts about data privacy and misuse of this feature, we are excited to witness the growth of voice-powered AI models.