For Some Reason You Can Now Call ChatGPT by Phone
ChatGPT has changed a lot since its debut in late 2022 . What started out as a chatbot for a web app has evolved into an AI you can have a real conversation with . The bot can now even see . But even if you have a choice between the original web app or the app on your phone or computer, ChatGPT is now ready to communicate using the older method: over the phone.
OpenAI announced the opening of the ChatGPT phone line on Thursday , December 19th. (To be clear, it’s not April 1.) The number—literally 1-800-CHATGPT (1-800-242-8478)—is completely free to call. , although OpenAI warns that the operator may charge a fee. If you prefer to send text messages, you can send a message to a number on WhatsApp. (Plain SMS is not supported.) You don’t need a ChatGPT account to chat with the bot: just call or text the number and you’ll get a response.
Although this experience is free, there are some limitations. OpenAI claims you can only talk to ChatGPT on the phone for 15 minutes per month, with a daily message limit on WhatsApp. The company isn’t saying what that limit actually is, but it does say it could change based on demand. Additionally, some core ChatGPT features such as ChatGPT search, image recognition, user instructions, and memory are not available in this interface. The cutoff date for receiving information when using ChatGPT with this number is October 2023, so don’t expect ChatGPT to know anything that happened after that.
You should be aware that OpenAI will save your phone calls and messages to 1-800-CHATGPT and associate those chats with the phone number you use to call or message the bot.
What does it mean to call ChatGPT?
Honestly, it’s a lot like communicating with Enhanced Voice, just with the lower audio quality you’ve come to expect from a traditional phone call.
That was until I had a relatively creepy interaction with a bot. After talking for a couple of minutes, I thought I’d see if ChatGPT would hang if I asked for it. At first he said something like he was there to help, but he didn’t actually hang up. So I asked again. No answer. I asked a second time. No answer. I said, “Hello?” No answer. Panic signal.
So I hung up and called back. After the initial greeting, I asked my question again. ChatGPT immediately said: “Of course, thanks for chatting!” And he hung up. Go figure it out. The next time I called back, I decided to test the limits of his knowledge by asking, “Who is the President?” I didn’t receive an answer. Instead, ChatGPT says: “Bye! Take care of yourself! Then he continued to leave the conversation at a dead end again.
While it’s unnerving, I think the problem is that ChatGPT can’t understand some questions when asked over the phone this way. He answers some questions without problems, while others he seems to get wrong. I asked, “Who is the president?” during another call and the bot thought I was asking about user privacy. But when I say, “Who is the President of the United States?” it got it.
Calling ChatGPT definitely introduces some hurdles that the dedicated app doesn’t have, but otherwise it’s a normal ChatGPT experience. If you like it, great. If you don’t, you probably won’t use it. I guess the benefit here is that you can call ChatGPT without an account. But, except for some rare cases, I don’t see this as a big benefit for most people.