(Photo: OpenAI)

Call Now! 1-800-CHATGPT

AI operators are standing by.

12/18/24 2:19PM

On day 10 of its 12 “shipmas” mini-launch events, OpenAI delivered a most unexpected and charming present that feels right out of the 1980s.

You can now just pick up your phone and call 1-800-CHATGPT (1-800-242-8478) to talk to the company’s chatbot for free, with a 15-minute limit per month. You can also message the number using Meta’s WhatsApp, and it replies with a text-based chat via the chatbot.

I tried it and it feels pretty natural, without much of a delay in responses. I asked ChatGPT for some holiday gift suggestions for my kids, which were OK. Hearing the natural sounding “advanced voice” interface filtered through the lossy telephone line kind of made it more believable.

When I called back to ask a few more questions, it answered:

“Hello again. It’s ChatGPT, an AI assistant. Our conversation may be reviewed for safety. How can I help you?”

I asked ChatGPT how many times I could call it:

“There’s no charge for calling 1-800-CHATGPT, and no limits on the number of calls. Feel free to reach out anytime you need assistance.”

But unlike the app or browser-based version of the chatbot, there’s no enabled history of your conversation, so don’t expect to pick up where you left off if you call back.

The OpenAI developers on the launch video said the idea came about from an internal “hack week” project, and showed the service working on flip phones and on an old rotary-dial landline phone.

The developers emphasized that the new service could make OpenAI’s chatbot available to a much wider range of people, as there is no sign-up or account required to use the service.

Rani Molla

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Tesla gets permit to test autonomous cars in Nevada as autonomous driving heats up there

Amazon’s self-driving Zoox launched service this week, and Google’s Waymo is testing there.

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OpenAI and Microsoft reach agreement that moves OpenAI closer to for-profit status

In a joint statement, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a “non-binding memorandum of understanding” for their renegotiated $13 billion partnership, which was a source of recent tension between the two companies.

Settling the agreement is a requirement to clear the way for OpenAI to convert to a for-profit public benefit corporation, which it must do before a year-end deadline to secure a $20 billion investment from SoftBank.

OpenAI also announced that the controlling nonprofit arm would hold an equity stake in the PBC valued at $100 billion, which would make it “one of the most well-resourced philanthropic organizations in the world.”

The statement read:

“This recapitalization would also enable us to raise the capital required to accomplish our mission — and ensure that as OpenAI’s PBC grows, so will the nonprofit’s resources, allowing us to bring it to historic levels of community impact.”

A joint statement from OpenAI and Microsoft

The statement read:

“This recapitalization would also enable us to raise the capital required to accomplish our mission — and ensure that as OpenAI’s PBC grows, so will the nonprofit’s resources, allowing us to bring it to historic levels of community impact.”

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BofA doesn’t expect Tesla’s ride-share service to have an impact on Uber or Lyft this year

Analysts at Bank of America Global Research compared Tesla’s new Bay Area ride-sharing service with its rivals and found that, for now, it’s not much competition for Uber and Lyft. “Tesla scale in SF is still small, and we don’t expect impact on Uber/Lyft financial performance in ’25,” they wrote.

Tesla is operating an unknown number of cars with drivers using supervised full self-driving in the Bay Area, and roughly 30 autonomous robotaxis in Austin. The company has allowed the public to download its Robotaxi app and join a waitlist, but it hasn’t said how many people have been let in off that waitlist.

While the analysts found that Tesla ride-shares are cheaper than traditional ride-share services like Uber and Lyft, the wait times are a lot longer (nine-minute wait times on average, when cars were available at all) and the process has more friction. They also said the “nature of [a] Tesla FSD ‘driver’ is slightly more aggressive than a Waymo,” the Google-owned company that’s currently operating 800 vehicles in the Bay Area.

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Oracle’s massive sales backlog is thanks to a $300 billion deal with OpenAI, WSJ reports

OpenAI has signed a massive deal to purchase $300 billion worth of cloud computing capacity from Oracle, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The report notes that the five-year deal would be one of the largest cloud computing contracts ever signed, requiring 4.5 gigawatts of capacity.

The news is prompting shares to pare some of their massive gains, presumably because of concerns about counterparty and concentration risk.

Yesterday, Oracle shares skyrocketed as much as 30% in after-hours trading after the company forecast that it expects its cloud infrastructure business to see revenues climb to $144 billion by 2030.

Oracle shares were up as much as 43% on Wednesday.

It’s the second example in under a week of how much OpenAI’s cash burn and fundraising efforts are playing a starring role in the AI boom: the Financial Times reported that OpenAI is also the major new Broadcom customer that has placed $10 billion in orders.

Exclusive | Oracle, OpenAI Sign Massive $300 Billion Cloud Computing Deal