OpenAI has had a busy couple of days. It just announced the release of SearchGPT. You can join the waitlist for ChatGPT's Google competitor right now. The company is following up on that release by revealing that the highly anticipated Voice Mode will launch next week, giving AI fans something else to look forward to.
In an X post responding to an OpenAI user asking for more information, CEO Sam Altman said, "Alpha rollout starts to plus subscribers next week!" That means you will definitely need to pay for ChatGPT Plus if you want to try out the voice features, which the company first demoed a couple of months ago.
Even if you are a Plus subscriber, you may not get access. On the official OpenAI X account, the company said it will "start the alpha with a small group of users to gather feedback and expand based on what we learn." You'll need to be among the users selected if you want to try it, but the company didn't provide any details about how to sign up for access, so it may just pick people from the Plus subscriber pool at random.
Thankfully, OpenAI said it's "planning for all Plus users to have access in the fall," so if you aren't in the initial wave of people selected, you'll be able to try out the new feature soon enough.
Interestingly, Altman revealed a narrower release window in a simple X post rather than having a more formal press release or live stream. That could mean a slow rollout.
The company originally planned to launch the new feature in June but delayed it for "one more month to reach our bar to launch." If Altman's X post is true, it appears the company is close enough to hit that bar to let some of its highest-paying users get access.
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