Users can now talk out loud to the AI chatbot and it will answer back with its own synthesised voice. The feature is part of an upgrade to the mobile app and follows in the footsteps of voice assistants such as Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri. ChatGPT has been given five different voices – both male and female - that were trained on actors hired by OpenAI, the US company behind the technology. The firm claims they are far more realistic than rival voice assistants – and is looking at allowing users to create their own in the future. Spotify has announced it is trialling the technology to translate podcasts into other languages, with an AI-generated imitation of the original host's voice.

"PRESS one if you are calling to check your balance, press two to set up an appointment." Such automated telephone services have been annoying callers looking for simple help for several years now. On the telephone, people want to deal with a human being, not a recorded voice putting them through hoops (see article). Yet that does not have to be the case. Consider the success that some companies have had with services that respond automatically to inquiries sent by e-mail.

"Ohhh, you've got a new collar? Good boy! Do you want to go for a walk? I should have been so embarrassed saying these words. I was talking to a dog, which obviously didn't understand what I was saying, and not surprisingly, gave no reply at all; yet I thought nothing of it, and the other people around me thought the interaction (such as it was) was perfectly normal. No one gave me a second glance.