OpenAI announced updates on Monday for its Advanced Voice Mode, a feature that facilitates real-time conversations in ChatGPT, with the goal of making the AI assistant more personable and reducing the frequency of interruptions during user interactions. The changes were revealed by Manuka Stratta, a post-training researcher at OpenAI, through a video shared on the company’s official social media channels.
The latest update from OpenAI addresses a common issue faced by users of AI voice assistants, where the technology interrupts users when they pause to think or take a breath. The new version of Advanced Voice Mode, now available to free users of ChatGPT, allows for pauses without interruption. Paying customers using ChatGPT’s Plus, Teams, Edu, Business, and Pro tiers will experience less frequent interruptions and benefit from enhancements to the voice assistant’s personality.
A spokesperson from OpenAI informed TechCrunch that the updated AI voice assistant for paying users is designed to be “more direct, engaging, concise, specific, and creative in its answers.” These improvements in Advanced Voice Mode come amidst growing competition in the AI voice assistant market.
Notably, a startup named Sesame, supported by Andreessen Horowitz and founded by Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, has recently gained attention for its natural-sounding AI voice assistants, Maya and Miles. Additionally, larger companies are expanding their presence in the AI voice assistant sector, such as Amazon, which is preparing to launch an LLM-powered version of Alexa.
