Third Time, Same Choice

In July, OpenAI launched GPT-Live with two older women trying ChatGPT Voice at a table. In September the same women came back for the version that can reach into email and calendar. This week OpenAI released a UK video for the new ChatGPT Voice, and this time it is three older men in a club with pool tables, a crossword and cups of tea.

What they ask for is ordinary, which is the point. Help with seventeen down. A trip to Casablanca for a wife's seventieth, with vegan restaurants sent by email. A guitar sold to a Spanish-speaking friend, translated as they talk. Asked to drop the jargon, the voice says it is "like chatting to a mate."

Three launches in a row, the company chose the same audience. We are thrilled that ChatGPT wants to empower the older generation. Most technology still treats that generation as something to monitor, not people to build for.

The same honest cautions apply. A voice that can send email can be talked into sending the wrong one, so setting it up is a family job. And this is an ad. The best line goes to the man heading out to collect his grandchildren, who asks if ChatGPT can do that yet. Not yet. That part still takes family.