The update also adds new voices. Shortly after the launch of GPT-4o, OpenAI was criticized for the similarity between the female voice in its demo videos, named Sky, and that of Scarlett Johansson, who played an AI love interest in the movie Her. OpenAI then removed the voice. Now, it has launched five new voices, named Arbor, Maple, Sol, Spruce, and Vale, which will be available in both the standard and advanced voice modes. MIT Technology Review has not heard them yet, but OpenAI says they were made using professional voice actors from around the world. “We interviewed dozens of actors to find those with the qualities of voices we feel people will enjoy talking to for hours—warm, approachable, inquisitive, with some rich texture and tone,” a company spokesperson says.
Who can access it and when?
For now, OpenAI is rolling out access to Advanced Voice Mode to Plus users, who pay $20 per month for a premium version, and Team users, who pay $30 per month and have higher message limits. The next group to receive access will be those in Enterprise and Edu tiers. The exact timing, though, is vague; an OpenAI spokesperson says the company will “gradually roll out access to all Plus and Team users and will roll out to Enterprise and Edu tiers starting next week.” The company hasn’t committed to a firm deadline of when all users in these categories will have access. A message in the ChatGPT app indicates that all Plus users will have access by “the end of fall.”
There are geographic limitations. The new feature is not yet available in the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein.
There is no immediate plan to release Advanced Voice Mode to free users. (The standard mode remains available to all paid users.)
