OpenAI has quietly opened up its advanced voice mode for all free users across Europe, and people are starting to enjoy testing it out on their devices. The feature has been available for paying customers for a good few months, but free users were locked out of conversational chat access until now.
For those who don’t know, advanced voice opens up a new faster, and more engaging ChatGPT chatbot with a variety of realistic voices and ultra-low latency. The result is people can chat to their devices — usually the phone in their pocket — as though they’re having a conversation with another human being.
This means there are no weird robotic vocals, or long gaps while the system tries to process stuff. It’s a revelation, and once the tech matures it's clearly one of the ways we’ll all be interacting with our devices in the future.
This is even more so the case as OpenAI pushes its Realtime API. This is a version of Advanced Voice that developers can use to integrate the live voice in their own products and applications.
Ways to use the 10 free minutes
For now, it’s more of a novelty product because of the 10-minute monthly limit. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be used for fun or useful things. I’ve been playing around with it, and trying to see how I can make it work.
The first thing to note is that 10 minutes a month roughly equals 20 seconds a day. And strangely enough, there’s quite a lot you can do in 20 secs. Here’s a brief selection of some of them.
1. History facts
My favorite request at the moment is “Tell me a ‘this day in history’ fact in 15 secs or less”. It’s amazing what it picks up and delivers.
It is a quick way to learn something new and it’s fun to be reminded about iconic events like the day the four-minute mile record was broken. Oh, such simpler times!
2. The riddler strikes
For puzzlers, another good prompt might be “Tell me a riddle of the day in less than 15 seconds”. It’s a good way to get the brain working in the morning, especially if you’re still on the wrong side of your morning cup of coffee.
I also like the opportunity for interaction, although you’ve got to be quick if you don’t want to waste precious seconds. Fortunately, it only counts the time you or the AI are talking.
3. A daily challenge
The daily challenge is a good one. “Give me a daily challenge in less than 15 seconds”. The value of this one is it can last all day, as long as you remember it.
One of my early challenges was nice. “Compliment 3 people genuinely. It can be friends, family, or even strangers. Spread some positivity.”
Final thoughts
These are just some of the examples I’ve been playing with. Of course, you don’t have to slice things up into tiny daily chunks, you could make it two minutes a week, or even consume your allotment in one 10 minute burst at the beginning of each month, whatever floats your boat.
Short language lessons, personal budgeting tips, or a micro story or meditation can also work well to make best use of the free time.
Whatever you choose, have fun!
