OpenAI released an official phone number for ChatGPT on Wednesday. People in eligible areas can call this number to access the company’s chatbot and interact with it verbally. Additionally, people living in the rest of the world can save the contact and text it to WhatsApp to talk to the Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot. Currently, the voice call time is fixed at 15 minutes per month, but the AI firm said this may be changed in the future.
OpenAI now lets people make phone calls over ChatGPT
In a post on Twitter (formerly known as Twitter), OpenAI announced the new phone number for ChatGPT. The number was marketed as the vanity phone number 1-800-CHATGPT (+1-800-242-8478). To make a number easily memorable, vanity phone numbers follow the letters on the keypad (A, B, and C refer to 2; D, E, and F refer to 3, and so on). The ‘800’ code means that the number is toll-free and callers will not have to bear the cost. This feature is currently available only in Canada and the US.
OpenAI highlighted that currently people will only get 15 minutes of call time per month. However, the company may change availability and limitations in the future. People living outside the above mentioned countries can still access ChatGPT via phone number, but only on WhatsApp.
After saving the number, WhatsApp users can send messages on ChatGPT just like they would on the official app or website. Currently, the chatbot’s WhatsApp extension only supports text as input and output. Additionally, other features like search, canvas and image creation through DALL-E will also not be available on WhatsApp or phone calls.
Notably, OpenAI said that the phone call feature does not require a smartphone and the feature works the same way on feature phones.
OpenAI is aggressively pushing to make ChatGPT the default AI chatbot platform for people. The company has already partnered with Microsoft and Apple to offer its Large Language Model (LLM). ChatGPT has also been launched on Windows and MacOS this year. The latest move is likely an attempt by the AI firm to target the rural demographic, which either does not have a lot of data to spend or has not yet experienced chatbots.
