OpenAI Opens New AI Voice Capability to Third-Party Developers

OpenAI is expanding access to its real-time voice assistant technology, allowing businesses and developers to integrate the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool into their own applications, Bloomberg reported.

This move is set to broaden the reach of realistic spoken AI interactions across a wide range of tasks and industries.

The new feature, which resembles the voice assistant available to paying ChatGPT users, will be accessible for those using OpenAI’s application programming interface (API). This development opens up possibilities for creating voice-based customer service bots, travel apps capable of making phone calls on behalf of users, and various other applications.

Several companies have already begun testing the voice capability, including health coaching app Healthify and language learning platform Speak. These early adopters showcase the potential for diverse implementations of the technology across different sectors.

The announcement came Tuesday (Oct. 1) as part of a series of updates being unveiled at OpenAI’s developer event in San Francisco. This conference serves as a platform for OpenAI to demonstrate its strategy for maintaining its edge in a competitive AI software market, especially as the company seeks to secure a big funding round.

The timing of the event is notable, following recent news of several high-ranking departures from OpenAI, including Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati. These exits are part of a trend of leadership changes at the startup in recent months.

Unlike last year’s developer conference, where OpenAI introduced a new AI model, this year’s focus is on showcasing enhanced API capabilities and engaging with its growing developer community. The company reports that about 3 million developers are working with its software globally.

To illustrate the new voice feature’s capabilities, OpenAI employees demonstrated a fictional travel app during a press briefing. The app, leveraging OpenAI’s technology in conjunction with Twilio’s cloud communications API, placed a mock phone call to order chocolate-covered strawberries, showing the potential for seamless voice-based interactions in real-world scenarios.

This developer event in San Francisco is the first of three planned gatherings, with additional events scheduled in London and Singapore.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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