ChatGPT Will Soon Have a New Voice

AI Chatbot and professional voice thief ChatGPT is back with a dulcet set of new digital vocal cords for its advanced Voice Mode. This might seem familiar, as we previously reported on ChatGPT giving actor Scarlett Johansson the digital Ursula treatment earlier this year.

As Phone Arena reports that the AI company is currently launching Voice Mode.  The company went on X to spread the news that Advanced Voice Mode “offers more natural, real-time conversations, allows you to interrupt anytime, and senses and responds to your emotions.” The small cohort of people who can currently interact with Voice Mode can do so one-on-one, with the feature rolling out to the masses sometime in the fall.

OpenAI has trained the model to speak in only four preset voices, will “block outputs that differ from those voices,” and has “implemented guardrails to block requests for violent or copyrighted content.” So that’s bad news if you were hoping to make your version of ChatGPT sound like Morgan Freeman or Bob Belcher from Bob’s Burgers.

Back in May, the actor, who had lent the voice of the digital assistant Samantha in Spike Jonze’s movie “Her,” was approached by ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman. He wanted her to record the voice of “Sky” for ChatGPT’s advanced Voice Mode, currently a premium perk for ChatGPT Plus users.

We’re starting to roll out advanced Voice Mode to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users. Advanced Voice Mode offers more natural, real-time conversations, allows you to interrupt anytime, and senses and responds to your emotions. pic.twitter.com/64O94EhhXK

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) July 30, 2024

Citing personal reasons, Johansson declined. But Altman didn’t take no for an answer, using the actor’s voice without permission. That ballsy move resulted in Johansson getting lawyers involved and Altman ultimately giving a flimsy statement saying the voice was never meant to bite off the actor. Advanced Voice Mode was delayed while ChatGPT searched for another voice.

I’m definitely curious about these new voices. How un-ScarJo will they be? Will there be a masculine option? Accents? Personally, I don’t see myself playing with this a lot when it launches, as I rarely use digital assistants. Hell, I’m not even a fan of having to talk to my folks on the phone (and I like them); nonetheless, an AI. But hey, that’s just me. Whenever it does go live, make sure not to fall in love with the AI, no matter how charming and engaging it might be.