ChatGPT upgrade: OpenAI’s GPT-4o allows chatbot to emote, give faster responses
FILE - The ChatGPT app is seen on a mobile device in this illustraiton photo.
OpenAI announced ChatGPT’s upgrade to GPT-4o on Monday, giving the chatbot "more natural human-computer interactions," the company said on its website.
The announcement came a day before Google unveiled its upgrades to its search engine to utilize more artificial intelligence.
OpenAI's latest update to its artificial intelligence model can mimic human cadences in its verbal responses and can even try to detect people's moods.
What is GPT-4o?
OpenAI’s new GPT-4o ("o" for "omni") will power the company’s popular ChatGPT chatbot.
The newest update will allow for faster responses than previous versions across all text, audio and video inputs.
What’s new with GPT-4o?
The newest version of ChatGPT will be capable of using more of a human tone when conversing with users and it will be able to pick up on emotional cues. GPT-4o will also be able to output its own simulated emotional reactions.
During a video demonstration, the chatbot helped a student with a math problem and the voice response was remarkably human, even empathetic.
GPT-4o was even able to display tones of affection when "meeting" a dog, calling it a "cutie" and asking what the "fluffball’s" name was.
It took a stab at extrapolating a person's emotional state by looking at a selfie video of their face (deciding he was happy since he was smiling).
The chatbot also translated English and Italian to show how it could help people who speak different languages have a conversation.
Gartner analyst Chirag Dekate told The Associated Press that the update gave the impression OpenAI is playing catch-up to larger rivals.
"Many of the demos and capabilities showcased by OpenAI seemed familiar because we had seen advanced versions of these demos showcased by Google in their Gemini 1.5 pro launch," Dekate said. "While Open AI had a first-mover advantage last year with ChatGPT and GPT3, when compared to their peers, especially Google, we now are seeing capability gaps emerge."
When will GPT-4o be available?
OpenAI said GPT-4o text and image capabilities will be available beginning Monday to those with free accounts, as well as with Plus users.
The upgraded Voice Mode will also be available in the coming weeks for ChatGPT Plus, the company website said.
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Google rolls out AI-powered search engine
Google introduced its updated AI-powered search engine during its I/O developer conference on Tuesday.
The makeover will begin this week in the U.S. when hundreds of millions of people will start to periodically see conversational summaries generated by the company's AI technology at the top of the search engine's results page.
The AI overviews are supposed to only crop up when Google's technology determines it will be the quickest and most effective way to satisfy a user's curiosity — a solution mostly likely to happen with complex subjects or when people are brainstorming, or planning. People will likely still see Google's traditional website links and ads for simple searches for things like a store recommendation or weather forecasts.
The next AI steps included more sophisticated analysis powered by Gemini — a technology unveiled five months ago — and smarter assistants, or "agents," including a still-nascent version dubbed "Astra" that will be able to understand, explain and remember things it is shown through a smartphone's camera lens.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.