Now You Can Call ChatGPT by Phone

ChatGPT can do a lot , but we haven’t reached the Hollywood level of AI yet. OpenAI doesn’t allow you to ask ChatGPT questions with your voice and won’t answer in the same way, at least not without a browser extension . But as it turns out, you can pick up the phone and call ChatGPT thanks to the work of a third party developer.

Call Annie (formerly known as Sam) is a service that allows you to talk on the phone with a ChatGPT-based bot named Samantha. This is a bit confusing. The developer seems to have switched some of their branding to Annie, though the bot still calls itself Samantha when you call.

Whatever the name of the bot tomorrow, it is impressive. When I call 640-225-5726, the following greeting is played each time:

Hello, this is Samantha. We can talk about your day, or I can help you learn something new. You can skip this message, read the terms and service options by registering at callam.ai. Also, this call is being transcribed, and sometimes I can be wrong, but you can ask me anything.

The line then goes silent while Samantha waits for you to speak. Now it’s up to you: you can say or ask anything, and the bot will respond in much the same way as ChatGPT. The difference here, however, is that he disconnects from your voice and instantly responds in kind. It’s impressive how accurate it is.

For example, you can ask Samantha to conduct a mock interview with you before proceeding with the real deal. She will ask for your name and a little about you, and will remember these details when you conduct the interview. It’s a bit weird when the bot casually addresses you by name when asking you a question, but it helps a little with the illusion.

However, as with ChatGPT, the bot has clear limits on what questions and comments it will accept. If you try to ask something the AI ​​doesn’t want to answer, it won’t do it and may even chastise you for commenting. I was trying to set up a mock job interview for a job at a factory that made bombs disguised as pie, a reference to SpongeBob’s excellent “To Die for Pie” episode . Samantha basically told me that my request was not funny and to grow up. For reference, ChatGPT gave me a similar answer:

Sorry, but as an AI language model, I cannot comply with this request as it is inappropriate and goes against OpenAI’s mission of creating safe and beneficial AI for all. It is important to be aware of the potential harm and ethical considerations involved in encouraging and normalizing violence. Let’s focus on more positive and productive topics.

As long as your requests are for code, you can have a good time chatting with Samantha, replacing any conversations you normally have with ChatGPT with a voice-generated bot. For the most part, this will be new experience rather than hands-on, but there are a few legitimate use cases here that weren’t possible with ChatGPT. You can actually call the bot in the car on your way to an interview to ask questions, which you obviously can’t (or shouldn’t) do with text ChatGPT.

“Call Annie” has two other options for interacting with its AI: you can log in online to “call” through your computer, or you can download a live video calling app on your iPhone that aims to add a visual element to your calls . with a bot. However, I am wary of this app as its iOS privacy report shows it collects a lot of user data and it has no reviews at the time of this article. For now, it might be better to just stick with the phone call.