OpenAI has accelerated the release of its AI tools in recent weeks. This month, it unveiled a version of its DALL-E image generator and folded the tool into ChatGPT.
ChatGPT attracted hundreds of millions of users after it was introduced in November, and several other companies soon released similar services. With the new version of the bot, OpenAI is pushing beyond rival chatbots such as Google Bard, while also competing with older technologies such as Alexa and Siri.
Over the next two weeks, OpenAI said, the new version of the chatbot would start rolling out to everyone who subscribes to ChatGPT Plus, a service that costs US$20 (about NZ$34) a month. But the bot can respond with voice only when used on iPhones, iPads and Android devices.
Though ChatGPT’s voice interface is reminiscent of earlier assistants, the underlying technology is fundamentally different. ChatGPT is driven primarily by a large language model, or LLM, which has learned to generate language on the fly by analysing huge amounts of text culled from across the internet.
As OpenAI is transforming ChatGPT into something more like Alexa or Siri, companies such as Amazon and Apple are transforming their digital assistants into something more like ChatGPT.
Last week, Amazon previewed an updated system for Alexa that aims for more fluid conversation about “any topic”. It is driven in part by a new LLM and has other upgrades to pacing and intonation to make it sound more natural, the company said.
Apple, which has not publicly shared its plans for how it will compete with ChatGPT, has been testing a prototype of its large language model for future products, according to two people briefed on the project.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Cade Metz, Brian X. Chen and Karen Weise
Photograph by: Jackie Molloy
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