With ChatGPT, you can now have a real chat without having to pay.
Although ChatGPT offers a premium version that you can use for a monthly fee, the free version frequently handles more than enough to let you take use of all that generative AI has to offer. Take use of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model and ask ChatGPT to generate some amusing, informative, thought-provoking, or entertaining outputs without having to pay anything. You can actually ask it out loud now.
You see, although the free version serves its purpose, the company’s $20 monthly ChatGPT Plus membership unlocks additional fantastic capabilities. You lose out on a number of features if you don’t pay, including plug-in support, the more potent GPT-4 model, and the ability to link ChatGPT to the internet.
Fortunately, OpenAI managed to make one formerly Plus-only function available to all customers despite the company’s current crisis: voice chat.
ChatGPT offers voice conversation for everyone.
Voice chat was made available to ChatGPT Plus customers by OpenAI back in September. This feature substitutes a more voice assistant-like interface for the text-based ChatGPT interface: When you converse with ChatGPT, a waveform will appear and respond accordingly. When you finish speaking, the assistant will sense it and transition into a “thought bubble” interface to answer your queries or fulfil your requests.
Voice chat was always intended to be available to free users, and after a few months, the service is now available:
While voice chat feels a little more natural when communicating with the chatbot, it actually accomplishes no more or different than text-based ChatGPT. Or at least gets us closer to Her circumstances in the real world.
How to utilize audio chat on ChatGPT
Note: Since I’m using ChatGPT Plus to guide me through voice chat, there might be some differences between my experience and what the free version offers. Having said that, here’s a basic tutorial on using it.
Make sure to download the official ChatGPT app to your phone before beginning, as this function is exclusive to the app and not available on the web version for iOS and Android. Start a new chat and search for the headphones symbol in the lower right corner of the screen when you launch the app and complete the setup. Voice chat will be available after you update the app; it started rolling out on Tuesday.
When you tap the headphones, a pop-up window describing the “chat with voice” option will appear. To proceed, select a voice. Juniper, Breeze, Cove, Ember, and Sky—who sounds a lot like Scarlett Johansson—are your five options. (An OpenAI employee truly adores Her.)
You’re in as soon as you choose your voice and proceed! By default, ChatGPT will start listening for your voice immediately away and wait to speak again until you’re finished. To get ChatGPT to answer, you can record your query or request by holding down the microphone and then letting go.
When you depart voice chat, ChatGPT will save a transcript of your exchange to the main chat window, allowing you to watch your conversation as usual. Text chats and voice chat transcripts can be distinguished from one another by looking for the microphone and waveform icons next to ChatGPT’s responses and your prompts, respectively.