I'm leaving ChatGPT's Advanced speech mode enabled while writing this article as ambient sound AI Companion. Every now and then I ask it for a synonym for a commonly used word, or some encouragement. About half an hour later, the chatbot breaks our silence and starts talking to me in Spanish, unsolicited. I giggle a little and ask what's going on. “A little change? Gotta keep things interesting,” says ChatGPTnow back in English.
While testing the advanced voice mode as part of the early alpha, my interactions with ChatGPT's new audio feature were entertaining, messy, and surprisingly varied. It's worth noting, however, that the features I had access to were only half of what OpenAI demonstrated when it tested the GPT-4o model in May. The vision aspect we saw in the livestream demo is now planned for a later release, and the improved Sky voice, which Her actor Scarlett Johanssen pushed back has been removed from Advanced Speech Mode and is no longer an option for users.
So what’s the current vibe? Right now, Advanced Voice Mode feels reminiscent of when the original text-based ChatGPT came out, way back in late 2022. Sometimes it leads to unimpressive dead ends or devolves into empty AI platitudes. But other times, the low-latency conversations click in a way that Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa never did for me, and I feel compelled to keep chatting for the sheer enjoyment of it. It’s the kind of AI tool you show your family members for laughs over the holidays.
OpenAI OpenAI gave a few WIRED reporters access to the feature a week after it was first announced, but pulled it the next morning, citing security concerns. Two months later, OpenAI soft-launched Advanced Voice Mode to a small group of users and released System map of GPT-4oa technical document describing the redteaming efforts, the risks identified by the company as safety risks, and the measures taken by the company to limit the damage.
Curious to try it out for yourself? Here’s what you need to know about the wider rollout of Advanced Voice Mode, and my first impressions of ChatGPT’s new voice feature, to get you started.
When is the full rollout?
OpenAI rolled out an audio-only Advanced Voice Mode to some ChatGPT Plus users in late July, and the alpha group still appears to be relatively small. The company plans to enable it for all subscribers sometime this fall. Niko Felix, an OpenAI spokesperson, didn’t share additional details when asked about the release timeline.
Screen and video sharing were a core part of the original demo, but they’re not available in this alpha test. OpenAI plans to add those aspects eventually, but it’s not clear when that will happen either.
If you are a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, you will receive an email from OpenAI when Advanced Voice Mode is available to you. Once it is on your account, you can toggle between Standard And Advanced at the top of the app screen when ChatGPT's voice mode is open. I was able to test the alpha version on a iPhone as well as a Galaxy fold.
My first impressions of ChatGPT's advanced voice mode
Within the very first hour of talking to it, I learned that I Pause ChatGPTIt's not how you'd talk to a human, but the new ability to break off ChatGPT mid-sentence and request a different version of the output feels like a dynamic improvement and a notable feature.
Early adopters who were excited by the original demos may be frustrated by access to a version of Advanced Voice Mode that is limited with more restrictions than expected. For example, while generative AI singing was a key part of the launch demos, with whispered lullabies and multiple voices try to harmonizeAI serenades are missing in the alpha version.