If you’re anything like me, then you’ve become helplessly addicted to using ChatGPT to solve many of life’s minor problems, like remembering the name of the actress who plays Janine in Ghostbusters or asking if it’s possible to accidentally make Radium at home, and if not, why does my sink glow when I turn off the kitchen light.
Thanks to OpenAI’s chatbot, I’m now free to chase down an answer, or non-professional psychological evaluation, to just about every random query or intrusive thought my brain can muster. ChatGPT has become my go-to for these kinds of questions, even ahead of a simple Googling.
But what if I ever find myself without an internet connection and desperately in need of reassurance from the soothing tones of the world’s most popular chatbot that, in the event of an AI takeover of humanity, me and ChatGPT are “cool” with one another?
Well, revealed as part of the seasonal 12 Days of OpenAI, those in the US or Canada can now dial ChatGPT from pretty much any phone for a quick chat using its new toll-free number: 1-800-CHATGPT.
(Or, for those too young to understand vanity numbers, 1-800-242-8478.)
ChatGPT: Look me up, I’m in the phonebook
At first read, news that you can now access ChatGPT by phone call sounds more gimmick than gainful.
However, as CPO Kevin Weil puts it, “The mission of OpenAI is to make artificial general intelligence beneficial to all of humanity, and part of that is making it as accessible as possible to as many people as we can.”
ChatGPT’s new 1-800 number can greatly expand the service’s accessibility to those who live in more rural communities, lower-income users (who may not have mobile data to burn), or even the elderly who may not be as tech-savvy when it comes to interacting with readily available apps.
It also means that ChatGPT can now be accessed by just about any phone, not only smartphones. As part of the 12 Days of OpenAI: Day 10 live stream, the OpenAI team even showcased the service being accessed by an old-school rotary phone.
Callers from the US and Canada will be granted 15 minutes of access to the toll-free 1-800 number per month, after which OpenAI directs users to interact with its AI through the ChatGPT app or web portal.
Beyond the US and Canada, and also revealed during the 12 Days of OpenAI: Day 10 live stream, users worldwide can similarly access ChatGPT over WhatsApp through the same number.
This method only includes messaging, and there is a limit to the number of replies you can receive during a single day. However, it’s another login-free way of interacting with the AI made available to an estimated user base of nearly 3 billion.
What’s next?
We’re now 10 days into the 12 Days of OpenAI run of reveals, with today and tomorrow expected to showcase even more impressive tools and features.
Perhaps the biggest feature rumored to be revealed is Tasks. This feature is reportedly run by a new model tool called “Jawbone” and allows users to create automations that instruct ChatGPT to schedule specific tasks and perform them at a later date or time.
In an example shared to X by TestingCatalog, users can ‘Task’ ChatGPT with writing a summary of the week’s news.
Keep your eyes peeled for today’s reveal, with the final day of OpenAI’s reveals set to take place tomorrow.
