OpenAI近日推出一项新功能，用户可通过拨打1-800-CHATGPT免费体验15分钟的ChatGPT语音服务。此举旨在为AI新手提供便捷的入门途径，通过电话或WhatsApp即可轻松体验简化版的ChatGPT。该服务利用OpenAI的Realtime API和GPT-4o mini技术，用户每月每个电话号码可享受15分钟的免费通话时长。OpenAI强调，此服务主要面向新用户，而需要更全面功能的老用户仍应使用常规渠道。此举也让人联想到谷歌2007年推出的语音目录辅助服务GOOG-411，但OpenAI明确表示不会利用这些通话数据训练大型语言模型。

📞 OpenAI推出1-800-CHATGPT电话服务，用户可免费体验15分钟的ChatGPT语音互动，旨在降低AI使用门槛。

📱 该服务通过OpenAI的Realtime API和GPT-4o mini技术支持，用户不仅可通过电话，还可在WhatsApp上使用，覆盖全球用户。

⏱️ 免费通话时长限制为每月每个电话号码15分钟，用户可通过注册多个号码来延长使用时间，但OpenAI强调此服务主要面向AI新手。

🤖 与网页版相比，电话服务是ChatGPT的简化版，OpenAI表示现有用户若需更全面的功能和个性化选项，仍需使用常规账户。

🗣️ OpenAI明确声明不会使用这些通话数据来训练大型语言模型，与谷歌当年收集语音样本的目的不同。

For the 10th day of “ship-mas,” OpenAI rolled out a way to call ChatGPT for up to 15 minutes for free using 1-800-CHATGPT.

The feature was a project spun up just a few weeks ago, OpenAI’s chief product officer Kevin Weil said on the livestream. Users can now call ChatGPT in the US and message via WhatsApp globally at 1-800-242-8478. The 15-minute limit is per phone number per month, so really, you could spin up a few Google Voice numbers to get as much time with it as you want.

The phone number is built using OpenAI’s Realtime API, and the WhatsApp feature is powered by GPT-4o mini through an integration with the WhatsApp API.

OpenAI

OpenAI sees this feature as an important stepping stone for newcomers to AI, since the service represents a simplified version of ChatGPT compared to its web-based counterpart and offers a “low-cost way to try it out through familiar channels.” The company notes that existing users seeking more comprehensive features, higher usage limits, and personalization options should continue using their regular ChatGPT accounts through traditional channels.

Funnily enough, Google launched a similar tool in 2007 called GOOG-411, which offered free directory assistance by voice. The service was discontinued in 2010 without an official explanation from Google, but some speculate that it was shut down because the company had already achieved its underlying goal: collecting a sufficient database of voice samples to advance its speech recognition technology.

At the time, Google VP Marissa Mayer said it outright: “The speech recognition experts that we have say: If you want us to build a really robust speech model, we need a lot of phonemes, which is a syllable as spoken by a particular voice with a particular intonation. So we need a lot of people talking, saying things so that we can ultimately train off of that. ... So 1-800-GOOG-411 is about that: Getting a bunch of different speech samples so that when you call up or we’re trying to get the voice out of video, we can do it with high accuracy.”

OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson said the company won’t be using these calls to train large language models.