OpenAI to delay its ‘Voice Mode’ debut to July

ChatGPT maker OpenAI on Tuesday, revealed that it was delaying the release of its “Voice Mode” feature by a month to July due to technical issues.

Initially, the company originally planned to debut the realistic voice conversation experience to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users in late June. Still, due to the time to reach its launch standard, it was delayed because it needed to.

“For example, we’re improving the model’s ability to detect and refuse certain content. We’re also working on improving the user experience and preparing our infrastructure to scale to millions while maintaining real-time responses,” OpenAI said in a post on social media platform X.

According to the company, the feature will initially be released to a small group of users to gather feedback and will be made available to all Plus users in the fall, subject to safety and reliability checks.

OpenAI is also working on rolling out new video and screen-sharing capabilities.

Recall that In May, the company revealed it would release a new AI model called GPT-4o, capable of realistic voice conversation and interacting across text and image, its latest move to stay ahead in the race to dominate emerging AI technology.

The new audio capabilities will enable users to speak to ChatGPT and obtain real-time responses without delay, as well as interrupt ChatGPT while it is speaking – both hallmarks of realistic conversations that AI voice assistants have found challenging.

REUTERS/ Chidimma Gold