OpenAI worries its AI voice may charm users [Video]

OpenAI says it is concerned that a realistic voice feature for its artificial intelligence might cause people to bond with the bot at the cost of human interactions.

The San Francisco-based company cited literature which it said indicates that chatting with AI as one might with a person can result in misplaced trust and that the high quality of the GPT-4o voice may exacerbate that effect.

“Anthropomorphization involves attributing human-like behaviors and characteristics to nonhuman entities, such as AI models,” OpenAI said Thursday in a report on safety work it is doing on a ChatGPT-4o version of its AI.

“This risk may be heightened by the audio capabilities of GPT-4o, which facilitate more human-like interactions with the model.”

OpenAI said it noticed testers speaking to the AI in ways that hinted at shared bonds, such as lamenting aloud that it was their last day together.

It said these instances appear …