OpenAI Unveils New ChatGPT That Listens, Looks and Talks

As Apple and Google transform their voice assistants into chatbots, OpenAI is transforming its chatbot into a voice assistant.

On Monday, the San Francisco artificial intelligence start-up unveiled a new version of its ChatGPT chatbot that can receive and respond to voice commands, images and videos.

The company said that the new app — based on an A.I. system called GPT-4o — juggles audio, images and video significantly faster than previous version of the technology. The app will be available starting on Monday, free of charge, for both smartphones and desktop computers.

“We are looking at the future of the interaction between ourselves and machines,” said Mira Murati, the company’s chief technology officer.

The new app is part of a wider effort to combine conversational chatbots like ChatGPT with voice assistants like the Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri. As Google merges its Gemini chatbot with the Google Assistant, Apple is preparing a new version of Siri that is more conversational.

OpenAI said it would gradually share the technology with users “over the coming weeks.” This is the first time it has offered ChatGPT as a desktop application.