Until now, ChatGPT, the popular conversational tool with Artificial Intelligence, was only able to provide text responses. Since September 2023, it has been possible to ask questions via voice, but until now it could not respond in the same way.
However, now the company behind ChatGPT, OpenAI, has launched a new multimodal feature that allows it to respond out loud. This can be very useful, for example, when you are doing another task while consulting ChatGPT or when you cannot look at a screen (or for integrating the chat into devices that do not have one). It is also helpful for people with visual impairments to use the tool.
That said, this comes after one of OpenAI’s competitors, Anthropic, also added the ability to respond through more than one medium (multimodality) to its AI models. By combining the feature launched in September with this one, you can now “have a conversation” with ChatGPT, asking questions via voice prompts and getting responses out loud.
How ChatGPT’s “Read Aloud” Works
The tool developed by OpenAI, called “Read Aloud,” is now available both on the web version of ChatGPT and in the iOS and Android apps for ChatGPT. In addition, it can be used with both GPT-4 and GPT-3.5.
The feature, similar to a GPS, allows the user to select from five different voice options, both male and female. “Read Aloud” can be used in 37 different languages at launch, although the company says more will be added in the future.
ChatGPT can automatically recognize the language in which the text is written. It could even read aloud sentences written in several different languages.
Additionally, the mobile apps include more features. For example, you can tap on the “Read Aloud” player to pause the text playback. You can also “rewind” to start the response again from the beginning.
