Love in the time of AI

Dearest gentle readers,

It has been but a week since my last correspondence, as I have been traversing the country, conducting workshops and observing the spirited cries of auctioneers.

Yet, the gossip has remained as vibrant as ever; the world is indeed abuzz with new digital companions. And Omni, the most talked-about of them all, has become the subject of many a parlour conversation. One can only speculate on the implications these tools will have on our romantic entanglements…

Imagine, dear reader, the scandalous possibilities! An AI suitor immune to the temptations of gossip, who never forgets an anniversary, and always knows the right thing to say. The poets may have to up their game, and perhaps, the fainting couches will become quite the trend again. Will our hearts remain safe, or will these digital darlings sweep us off our feet, one charming algorithm at a time?

OK, enough Lady Whistledown for today, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity when the three most talked-about topics of the week have been 1) Bridgerton, 2) ChatGPT 4o (or Omni for short) and 3) How much Sky (one of the ChatGPT assistant voices) sounds like Scarlet Johannson… a digital assistant who ended up in a relationship with her human.

Also, I feel it’s kind of timely and weird that I mentioned the movie ‘Her’ in my last post, and that is exactly what this new version of ChatGPT is being likened to. (If only I could pick this week’s Powerball numbers as easily… )

If you have 26 minutes, here is the announcement that OpenAI live-streamed last week containing all the new goodies they have in store for us:

If you don’t have 26 minutes, here’s my summary of what’s new:

1. Performance is much faster (like really, really fast)

2. It can handle text, audio and video from phones and has a new voice assistant that sounds like it can react with empathy and emotion (hence my comments about Her)

3. Advanced features are free for everyone - so if you are not paying for a subscription right now, you can access things like the GPT store for free - (if this is your first foray into the GPT store, I have linked some posts you might be interested in below)

4. If you are paying for a subscription, you get more messages per hour and exclusive vision features (though not sure what they are yet)

5. OpenAI are developing new apps for the desktop and iPhone

6. This version is supposed to be able to create 3D images and fonts 

7. If you’re on the corporate version, you can integrate it across things like Microsoft Teams and Google Drive

8. If you are using the API, it’s cheaper.

I’ve had about a day to test the new model, and here’s what I’ve observed (so far!):

• The text gen language is much better than 4.0, and the model is indeed blazingly fast. (I managed to get it to read a 100,000-word manuscript in maybe less than a second).

• My voice assistant did display plenty of empathy and emotion when I confessed to not feeling well on Friday (but to date has not checked back to see how I am!!)

• The 3D fonts and images didn’t work (I’m guessing they are part of the rollout and keen to see what they can do with things like floorplans)

• I can’t wait for the desktop app—it will be super useful to have ChatGPT open natively while working in other browser windows or applications.

• I can’t wait for the new mobile app: I’ve been predicting for a while now that it won’t be too long before the model will be pretty accurate with telling the difference between two images (very useful in property management!)

I’m putting together a video of use cases, which I hope to have out on Wednesday - so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, here are those posts on GPTs you might like below 👇

Happy Hunting! 🚀