ChatGPT’s New Voice Assistant Is Here to Creep You Out

OpenAI’s much-anticipated ChatGPT voice assistant is rolling out this week to all paying subscribers, and like a lot of features regarding AI, it’s a little creepy in action.

Advanced Voice Mode (AVM) began making its way to users who pay for ChatGPT Plus this week, according to OpenAI. The company tweeted a video of the feature in action as it helps someone craft an apology to their grandmother for being late. The user switches gears and tells the voice assistant to make the apology in Mandarin, which it did on the fly. The company says the AVM can offer the apology in more than 50 different languages.

Advanced Voice is rolling out to all Plus and Team users in the ChatGPT app over the course of the week.

While you’ve been patiently waiting, we’ve added Custom Instructions, Memory, five new voices, and improved accents.

It can also say “Sorry I’m late” in over 50 languages. pic.twitter.com/APOqqhXtDg

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 24, 2024

OpenAI first revealed its AVM back in May, and it caused quite a controversy as the voice sounded very similar to Scarlett Johansson. This led the actor to threaten legal action as she had warned the company to not use her voice after she was approached by company CEO Sam Altman with an offer to be the voice of the feature last year. The voice used in the demo still does have a hint of Johansson to it.

AVM was officially launched in July, but it was only made available to a select number of ChatGPT Plus subscribers. Tuesday’s announcement is the start of a wider launch to subscribers and Team users this week while Enterprise and Edu users will see the feature roll out to them next week. You’ll know if you have AVM as a notification will appear on the app.

There are five new voices for AVM: Arbor, Maple, Sol, Spruce, and Vale. This brings a total number of nine voices to try out.

Meet the five new voices. pic.twitter.com/F9BOUaJqG1

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 24, 2024

Along with the new voices, AVM can be programmed in a way. There are Custom Instructions in the Settings option to let you choose how you want the model to speak. This can include having it speak clearly and slowly, or having it address you with a certain name. It can even act as an interviewer if you want to practice for an interview. That said, expect some people to customize their AVMs in ways you wouldn’t want to think about.

OpenAI also says AVM has a variety of improvements from its conversational speed, how smoothly it talks, and its accents. It can also adapt to the tone of the conversation in order to sound like another person.

Those who want to have a real chat with ChatGPT will have to pay for the Plus subscription which starts at $20 a month.