OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, today announced the launch of ChatGPT-4o. This is a version of ChatGPT 4.0, the most advanced version of the conversational chatbot that inaugurated the race for generative artificial intelligence (AI). With one difference: ChatGPT-4o will be free, while version 4.0 is paid. This was stated by the company’s technology director, Mira Murati, at a corporate event that had raised many expectations.
The new version of ChatGPT reduces latency (the waiting time after sending a request), improves its speed and is optimized for 50 languages. The latter was a request from the user community, who have always regretted that the tool works much better in English than in other languages.
Company executives have also presented a voice assistant, capable of commenting on texts with users, but also on images recorded in real time from the mobile phone. In the presentation, one of the OpenAI employees wrote an equation on a piece of paper and focused it with the camera of his phone, then asked the assistant a series of questions.
OpenAI’s announcement comes after days of many rumors. Last week there was speculation that the company led by Altman would present ChatGPT Search today, the search engine supported by AI that would turn the search engine sector upside down, controlled until now with an iron fist by Google. Its clear dominance in search engines has been the basis on which the Google empire has been built, which knew how to monetize that preponderant position by serving users advertising related to their interests.
The idea that generative AI can bury traditional search engines has been around the offices of big technology companies since ChatGPT inaugurated the era of this technology. If people start asking questions to the chatbot and stop doing conventional searches, the manna of search engine advertising revenue will run out.
Altman himself took it upon himself last Friday to deny that the search tool was going to be presented today. Neither does GPT5, the new version of the flagship OpenAI model that the company has been working on for months and that would improve ChatGPT 4, which, for many, is the best and most efficient generative AI platform to date.
not gpt-5, not a search engine, but we’ve been hard at working on some new stuff we think people will love! feels like magic to me.
Monday 10am PT. https://t.co/nqftf6lRL1
—Sam Altman (@sama) May 10, 2024
Altman and his people have counterprogrammed Google, their great rival in the generative AI race, which celebrates its great tomorrow event with developers, Google I/O. This is the forum that the company usually uses to take stock of the situation and communicate launches or new relevant developments.
Another rumor that has spread through social networks this weekend is the possible alliance of OpenAI with Apple. Those who support this possible agreement, not confirmed by either party, see it as a response from the block house to re-engage in the race for generative AI. Aware that they are very far from leading this technology, Apple would be considering a strategic alliance with OpenAI so that its new iOS 18 operating system incorporates a version of the chatbot.
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