San Francisco-based OpenAI has rolled out significant updates to its Advanced Voice Mode, aiming to make its AI-powered voice assistant more engaging and less intrusive during conversations. The latest enhancements, announced on Monday, address a common issue users face—frequent interruptions from the AI when they pause to think or take a breath.

How is the Advanced Voice Mode updated?

Manuka Stratta, a post-training researcher at OpenAI, introduced the improvements in a video shared on the company’s official social media platforms. Free-tier users of ChatGPT will now experience a more seamless interaction, as the assistant has been fine-tuned to recognise pauses without cutting users off. Meanwhile, paying subscribers—spanning OpenAI’s Plus, Teams, Edu, Business, and Pro plans—will benefit from an even more refined version of the AI, designed to be “more direct, engaging, concise, specific, and creative” in its responses, according to an OpenAI spokesperson quoted by TechCrunch.

These updates come as competition in the AI voice assistant market is intensifying. OpenAI’s decision to improve Advanced Voice Mode reflects its ongoing efforts to enhance user experience.

In parallel with these functional upgrades, OpenAI has also released findings from a recent study titled Investigating Affective Use and Emotional Well-being on ChatGPT. The research explored how frequent interactions with AI, particularly through voice-enabled features, might influence human behaviour and emotions. The study categorised heavy ChatGPT users as “power users” and suggested that increased reliance on the chatbot could contribute to loneliness and emotional dependence.

OpenAI’s new research

Conducted over 28 days with nearly 1,000 participants, the randomised controlled experiment examined the psychological effects of AI-driven conversations. MIT Media Labs conducted a parallel study, underscoring growing concerns about the long-term impact of human-like AI interactions on emotional well-being.

“As AI chatbots become more prevalent in daily life, questions are being raised about the effects of anthropomorphic AI on users. In this work, we investigate the extent to which interactions with ChatGPT—particularly through Advanced Voice Mode—affect users’ emotional well-being, behaviours, and experiences,” an excerpt from the study states.