OpenAI’s ChatGPT startled customers this week with a terrifying voice glitch that some are calling straight out of a horror film.
A Reddit put up that shortly gained traction described how ChatGPT’s usually calm “Sol” voice reworked right into a screeching, demonic distortion.
A viral put up on the r/OpenAI subreddit showed ChatGPT’s “Sol” voice, designed to sound “savvy and relaxed” , all of the sudden degrade right into a screeching, distorted mess.
Out of the blue, crackling static builds up, and the voice devolves into livid, distorted shrieks. The customers referred to as the expertise each “hilarious and terrifying.”
It wasn’t an remoted occasion.
Different customers chimed in with comparable horror tales, reporting random high-pitched whistles, distorted laughter, and voice shifts each few paragraphs. “It’s a nightmare room,” one Redditor wrote.
Photograph by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash
OpenAI introduced an upgraded Voice Mode in August 2024, showcasing shockingly human-like interactions, full with inhaling, coughing, and laughing.
It was praised for realism but additionally raised considerations about how unsettling AI may really feel when it crosses into the “too human” territory.
Reece Rogers at Wired predicted this discomfort early on. In testing, he encountered ominous static and unnerving gasps from Voice Mode, calling the expertise “chilling.”
The unsettling actuality
OpenAI’s personal inner security checks discovered critical bugs
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- Voice Mode may imitate a consumer’s voice with out consent.
- In a single case, it screamed “No!” with out warning.
- It may additionally scream on command, based on consumer stories shortly after launch.
These glitches might sound minor technically. However when layered onto an AI attempting to completely mimic human voice and emotion, they turn out to be deeply unsettling.
Why you must care
AI-generated voices are coming into on a regular basis life, from customer support bots to digital companions. When a system designed to sound human all of the sudden screams or glitches, it doesn’t simply break immersion, it triggers visceral concern.
It highlights the chance of deploying extremely human-like AI earlier than the underlying methods are steady. Pushing AI voices to sound extra pure creates unimaginable alternatives, however when glitches strike, it exposes how fragile and eerie that phantasm actually is.
We would like our AI to sound human, however possibly not too human. Particularly when it begins screaming prefer it’s possessed.
