OpenAI has announced that it's now possible to converse with its AI chatbot, ChatGPT, from any phone in the USA and Canada, whether or not you are a subscriber to the platform. Elsewhere in the world, ChatGPT is accessible via WhatsApp.

To call ChatGPT, people in the US and Canada can simply dial 1-800-ChatGPT (or 1-800-242-8478). As such, you don't need a smartphone to use ChatGPT, let alone an internet connection. For those who don't already have a ChatGPT account, calls are limited to 15 minutes per month. You can then chat with the bot in a natural way, asking a whole host of practical or general knowledge questions, from travel advice to gift ideas, for example.

Elsewhere in the world, users can chat with ChatGPT directly in WhatsApp, by creating a new contact and assigning it the same US phone number. Users can then exchange messages with the chatbot, whether to ask for help with a professional project, get recipe recommendations, or simply chat about the weather. For the moment, it's still quite experimental, and in times of high demand, the service may be temporarily unavailable.

This version of ChatGPT remains rather limited, with no personalization features or access to the search engine, but it could nonetheless be a gateway to the world of generative artificial intelligence for many people. WhatsApp is said to have over two billion monthly active users worldwide, while ChatGPT boasts 300 million per week.

With this move, OpenAI is also stepping on the toes of Meta, the publisher of WhatsApp, which has already integrated its own AI into the application. Currently, Meta AI is on hand to answer a multitude of questions and be a source of inspiration. This AI is available in 22 countries and in several languages, although still not in the European Union. Meta is nevertheless working to resolve these compliance issues to enable future availability of Meta AI in the region.

The last few days have been particularly busy for OpenAI, with the launch of the video-generation tool Sora, and availability of ChatGPT's integrated web search engine extended to all users. – AFP Relaxnews