I's two hottest labs are betting that voice is going to make AI better and easier to use for a lot more people.
On Thursday, both Anthropic and OpenAI launched updates to their voice AI tools, allowing users more control over their models through speaking. Both updates allow AI systems to integrate more deeply into a user's context, enabling more complex task handling through free-flowing conversations.
Here's the breakdown:
- OpenAI announced that GPT-Live, its AI voice model that powers ChatGPT Voice, is now available in the ChatGPT desktop app, allowing it to work with agents via ChatGPT Work and Codex. This lets users direct agents to take actions across their computers and on the web using just their voice, including instructing agents to start and carry out multiple tasks. The update gives ChatGPT Voice access to plugins, files, app shots and computer use, giving it a better understanding of a user's context.
- Anthropic's update brings Claude's voice modeto three different levels of models: Haiku for simple tasks, and Opus and Sonnet for harder problem-solving. Users can also now connect their voice capabilities to apps like Gmail and Slack, giving it more context for better task completion, and it's available in a wider array of languages.
These updates are only the latest signal that voice is becoming one of AI's next growth areas as speech detection models shift the way that people work. OpenAI made this clear with its launch of Codex Micro, a miniature keyboard built for vibe coding that's controlled primarily via voice commands.
And rumblings of this shift had already begun earlier this year at CES, where a large pool of startups showed off AI voice companions, from voice-powered earbuds to rings to hands-free, voice-controlled manufacturing use cases.
Our Deeper View #
The name of the game in getting people to adopt any new tech is seamlessness. This is exactly why Anthropic, OpenAI and other startups are leaning into voice. It's a technology that can pick up and make sense of your streams of consciousness throughout the workday, and that could become incredibly valuable to almost any user. Getting as many people as possible to adopt AI into their day-to-day lives is critical for OpenAI and Anthropic to shepherd the AI transformation they have promised, as well as meet revenue goals ahead of two of the most high-profile IPOs in tech history. However, the seamlessness strategy only works if their voice AI is actually seamless. If not, it may have the opposite effect of what they intended, frustrating and turning off more users, as Apple has learned during its rocky history with Siri.