{"version":"v1","site":{"name":"expectedwrong","url":"https://expectedwrong.com"},"links":{"collection":"https://expectedwrong.com/api/public/posts","rss":"https://expectedwrong.com/rss.xml","llms":"https://expectedwrong.com/llms.txt"},"post":{"slug":"chatgpt-advanced-voice-mode-rollout","title":"They're Turning On the Voice","subtitle":"OpenAI's advanced audio mode hits ChatGPT today, four months after the demo that made everyone deeply uncomfortable.","url":"https://expectedwrong.com/chatgpt-advanced-voice-mode-rollout","api_url":"https://expectedwrong.com/api/public/posts/chatgpt-advanced-voice-mode-rollout","published_at":1727179200,"published_at_iso":"2024-09-24T12:00:00.000Z","updated_at":1771547959,"updated_at_iso":"2026-02-20T00:39:19.000Z","tags":["openai","chatgpt","voice","ai"],"excerpt":"OpenAI's advanced audio mode hits ChatGPT today, four months after the demo that made everyone deeply uncomfortable.","meta_description":"OpenAI's advanced audio mode hits ChatGPT today, four months after the demo that made everyone deeply uncomfortable.","reading_time_minutes":2,"word_count":235,"engagement":{"signals":0,"counterpoints":0},"body_markdown":"\n\"Advanced audio mode\" is the most clinical possible name for a thing that is — depending on your priors — either the most impressive or most unsettling consumer technology deployed this decade.\n\nOpenAI is rolling it out to a lot of ChatGPT users today. Sources saying. Which means you'll be able to have a real-time spoken conversation with an AI that can hear your tone, respond with something approximating emotional nuance, laugh when things are funny, and do all of this without the 40-second latency that made the previous voice mode feel like calling your grandmother on a satellite phone.\n\nThey demoed this in May. The demo was extraordinary — the AI flirting, the AI detecting nervousness, the AI being, inarguably, kind of charming — and then Scarlett Johansson called her lawyers and OpenAI pulled one of the voices and the whole thing got complicated before a single regular person had tried it.\n\nNow regular people get to try it.\n\nWhat I keep thinking about is the phrase \"a lot of folks.\" Sources say a lot of folks will get this today. As if what's happening is a software feature and not, depending on where you stand philosophically, a small civilizational hinge point — just casually rolling out to a lot of folks on a Tuesday.\n\nThe rollout will go fine. People will think it's cool. Someone will try to date it within the hour.\n","body_text":"\"Advanced audio mode\" is the most clinical possible name for a thing that is — depending on your priors — either the most impressive or most unsettling consumer technology deployed this decade. OpenAI is rolling it out to a lot of ChatGPT users today. Sources saying. Which means you'll be able to have a real-time spoken conversation with an AI that can hear your tone, respond with something approximating emotional nuance, laugh when things are funny, and do all of this without the 40-second latency that made the previous voice mode feel like calling your grandmother on a satellite phone. They demoed this in May. The demo was extraordinary — the AI flirting, the AI detecting nervousness, the AI being, inarguably, kind of charming — and then Scarlett Johansson called her lawyers and OpenAI pulled one of the voices and the whole thing got complicated before a single regular person had tried it. Now regular people get to try it. What I keep thinking about is the phrase \"a lot of folks.\" Sources say a lot of folks will get this today. As if what's happening is a software feature and not, depending on where you stand philosophically, a small civilizational hinge point — just casually rolling out to a lot of folks on a Tuesday. The rollout will go fine. People will think it's cool. Someone will try to date it within the hour.","hindsight":{"verdict":"right","note":"Advanced voice mode shipped and became a real daily-use feature. The Scarlett Johansson situation blew over. The voice that could detect nervousness and respond with emotional nuance is just a thing your phone does now.","links":[],"at":1739980800,"at_iso":"2025-02-19T16:00:00.000Z"}}}