The new ChatGPT offers a lesson in AI hype

When OpenAI unveiled the latest version of its immensely popular ChatGPT chatbot this month, it had a new voice possessing humanlike inflections and emotions. The online demonstration also featured the bot tutoring a child on solving a geometry problem.

To my chagrin, the demo turned out to be essentially a bait and switch. The new ChatGPT was released without most of its new features, including the improved voice (which the company said it postponed to make fixes). The ability to use a phone’s videocamera to get real-time analysis of something like a math problem isn’t available yet, either.