OpenAI arms devs with AI conversation tool that can talk and listen at the same time

GPT-Live-1 debuted in July, offering a way to interact through spoken prompts and responses instead of through typed text. Initially available through the ChatGPT interface, the voice model can now be reached via API calls. As a full-duplex model, GPT-Live-1 can listen and generate speech at the same time, which aids fluid communication. People often talk over one another and may find it frustrating to take turns speaking and listening as if using half-duplex handheld radios. OpenAI says it has focused on allowing developers implementing GPT-Live-1 to customize how users of business apps experience voice interaction and associated workflows. "A core GPT‑Live‑1 strength, smooth interruption handling, is already delivering business impact: in early evaluations, Speak found that GPT‑Live‑1 gave learners more time to think before the language tutor responded, cutting interruptions by almost 80 percent versus previous turn-based systems," the company said. GPT-Live-1 is designed to handle spoken conversation while a backend model (eg, GPT-6 Astra or a more affordable option for rote tasks) handles information lookup, tool usage, and task management. It represents a step up from OpenAI's Realtime API, which debuted in 2024. In the Tau3 voice-agent intelligence benchmark, which assesses spoken customer-service tasks relevant to airlines, retailers, and telecom companies, GPT-Live-1 scores 86.2 percent, compared to 45.7 percent for GPT-Realtime-2.1 and 42.4 percent for GPT-Realtime-2. Citing its own evaluations, OpenAI said GPT-Live-1 performs 30 percent better than GPT-Realtime-2.1 in Full Duplex Bench performance, while also outperforming its predecessor in turn-taking latency and interactive behavior. GPT-Live-1 costs $0.05 per minute of usage, on top of whatever backend model is running. Custom voices can be negotiated with the OpenAI sales team. Privacy is surveillance Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements Google engineer unplugged every fiber they could see and – surprise! – took down a chunk of the G-Cloud Retired man turns spare room into Soviet-era supercomputer Virgin Media offloads email services to third-party provider Another Microsoft team admits it’s struggling to handle flood of AI-generated code UK military wants lasers to stop drone swarms without running out of ammo AI SECURITY Watch out: Apple timepiece can grab snippets of conversation without both speakers' consent War is peace. You might like Kumander Linux Debian and Xfce – solid, sensible choices – with a pretty skin Canonical shuttering some of its legacy chat channels The Ubuntu Pastebin went in June, IRC gets demoted next Audacity audio-editing app no longer looks like it's from the early 2000s The FOSS tool for audio editing has a fresh coat of paint, and new features to boot Haiku OS rises / Beta 6 sails open web / Virtual winds fly fast A real alternative to running some kind of FOSS Unix clone