'AI from the movies' is becoming a reality (and I'm not sure how to feel about it)

While it might feel like every week is a big news week in the world of AI, this week has been a particularly, well, big news week. First came word that Apple is nearing a deal with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT natively to the iPhone. And now, OpenAI itself has dropped yet another wildly impressive version of said generative model, and everyone's already comparing it to a certain movie from 2013.

Yep, it looks like Spike Jonez's 'Her' is finally (sort of) becoming a reality. GPT-4 Omni's (or GPT-4o) features new real-time audio features that make it "a step towards much more natural human-computer interaction". Which, for many, is conjuring an image of Joaquin Phoenix talking to Scarlett Johansson's disembodied voice through his phone and computer.

GPT-4o certainly looks (and sounds) impressive. While the tool features faster response times and better image parsing, it's the human-sounding voice that's naturally hogging the headlines.

herMay 13, 2024

"The new voice (and video) mode is the best computer interface I’ve ever used," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared in a blog post. "It feels like AI from the movies; and it’s still a bit surprising to me that it’s real. Getting to human-level response times and expressiveness turns out to be a big change." From the movies indeed – and from one movie in particular, with Altman then simply tweeting 'her' (above). Any it seems plenty of X users agree.

“i’m dating a model” pic.twitter.com/kSEYMJkdI5May 13, 2024

I should prompt her. pic.twitter.com/i5JLoYj30CMay 13, 2024

Of course, while the comparisons are prompting much mirth and excitement, it's important to remember that Her remains, at its heart, pretty dystopian. It's only when Johansson's OS 'Samantha' finally departs to the great AI in the sky that Phoenix's Theodore begins to step outside of his somewhat lonely existence. Maybe becoming friends with AI isn't what humanity needs right now? Still, things have been moving in that direction for a while, with AI beauty pageants even becoming a thing.

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Daniel John is Senior News Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of art, design, branding and lifestyle tech (which often translates to tech made by Apple). He joined in 2020 after working in copywriting and digital marketing with brands including ITV, NBC, Channel 4 and more.