OpenAI is bringing a new AI model, GPT-4o, to ChatGPT, the company said Monday. The idea is to bring “GPT-4”-class chat to the OpenAI app, and for free to all OpenAI users.
OpenAI will accompany the launch of the GPT-4o model with a new Mac app that will showcase the capabilities of the new model, which can now “see” the world around it. A Windows app will debut later on. The GPT-4o model can now “see,” as well, via vision capabilities that include desktop screenshots as well as the ability to upload video and screenshots from a mobile app — again, just an iPhone app for now.
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the new ChatGPT app with GPT-4o, however, is that the model now seems far more human in both tone and intonation. For one thing, the model is “real time,” which means that you don’t have to wait for it to complete its statement before you can jump in and cut it off. The speech synthesis can even harmonize its voices, as well as provide what we could consider to be “normal” conversational interactions, translations, and more. Normal conversations will now have GPT-4 levels of sophistication across the board.
Consider this GPT-4o demonstration, which now incorporates teenager-level sarcasm on demand, below. Consider this a demonstration, however: GPT-4o’s new audio and video capabilities are coming in the future, OpenAI said. (You can still “talk” to ChatGPT via the mic app on the Web version of ChatGPT.)
Free users will be able to use the new GPT-4o model with their ChatGPT account, but there will be a rate limit. The GPT-4o model supports Web browsing, memory (so that the model will understand the context of what you’re asking, in terms of earlier conversations), and the GPT Store.
“There will be a limit on the number of messages that free users can send with GPT-4o depending on usage and demand,” OpenAI said. “When the limit is reached, ChatGPT will automatically switch to GPT-3.5 so users can continue their conversations.”
For more of the demonstrations surrounding GPT-4o, I’d recommend that you watch the demonstration portion of the announcement livestream, below.
OpenAI execs positioned the new announcement as bringing GPT-4 to users for free, and that’s true in terms of what OpenAI offers. Microsoft, however, offers GPT-4 capabilities within Windows’s Copilot AI, including the ability to toggle GPT-4 on inside the mobile app.
Google, not to be outdone, also showed off its own vision capabilities within Gemini.
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld
Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.