On day 10 of its 12 “shipmas” mini-launch events, OpenAI delivered a most unexpected and charming present that feels right out of the 1980s.
You can now just pick up your phone and call 1-800-CHATGPT (1-800-242-8478) to talk to the company’s chatbot for free, with a 15-minute limit per month. You can also message the number using Meta’s WhatsApp, and it replies with a text-based chat via the chatbot.
I tried it and it feels pretty natural, without much of a delay in responses. I asked ChatGPT for some holiday gift suggestions for my kids, which were OK. Hearing the natural sounding “advanced voice” interface filtered through the lossy telephone line kind of made it more believable.
When I called back to ask a few more questions, it answered:
“Hello again. It’s ChatGPT, an AI assistant. Our conversation may be reviewed for safety. How can I help you?”
I asked ChatGPT how many times I could call it:
“There’s no charge for calling 1-800-CHATGPT, and no limits on the number of calls. Feel free to reach out anytime you need assistance.”
But unlike the app or browser-based version of the chatbot, there’s no enabled history of your conversation, so don’t expect to pick up where you left off if you call back.
The OpenAI developers on the launch video said the idea came about from an internal “hack week” project, and showed the service working on flip phones and on an old rotary-dial landline phone.
The developers emphasized that the new service could make OpenAI’s chatbot available to a much wider range of people, as there is no sign-up or account required to use the service.
