[cle]

Meanwhile multiple non-technical people that I know pay $20/mo to OpenAI and have long, verbal conversations with ChatGPT every day to learn new things, explore ideas, reflect, etc.

These are obviously what voice assistants should do, the research was just not there. Amazon was unwilling to invest in the long-term research to make that a reality, because of a myopic focus on easy-to-measure KPIs. After pouring billions of dollars into Alexa. A catastrophic management failure.

[mrweasel]

Are they talking to ChatGPT, or are they typing? More and more we're seeing that user don't even want to use a phone for phone calls, so maybe a voice interface really isn't the way to go.

Edit: Oh, you wrote "verbal" that seems weird to me. Most people I know certainly don't want to talk to their devices.

[ljf]

My wife paid for ChatGPT and is loving it - she only types to it so far (and sends it images and screenshots), but I've had a go at talking to it and it was much better than I thought.

If I'm alone I don't mind talking if it is faster, but there is no way I'm talking to AI in the office or on the train (yet...)

[throwaway314155]

> If I'm alone I don't mind talking if it is faster

When is talking faster than text? I only ever use it when my hands are tied (usually for looking up how to do things while playing a video game).

[Retric]

When you can talk at your normal pace?

People talk at about 120WPM - 160WPM naturally, few can type that fast which is why stenographers have a special keyboard and notation.

[throwaway314155]

I struggle to have naturally flowing conversation with an AI for much the same reason people don't use most of Siri's features - it's awkward and feels strange.

As such I can maintain about five minutes of slow pace before giving up and typing. I have to believe others have similar experiences. But perhaps I'm an outlier.

[PaulHoule]

I feel tiredness in my throat when I talk to bots like Alexa as you have to enunciate in a special way to get across to them.

[Retric]

Sure, it defiantly doesn’t work for everyone. I think it’s accent or something dependent as some people’s natural voice comes across fine.

[conception]

I know quite a few folks that chat with the gpts. Especially while committing in the car. Also there are niche uses like language practice.