OpenAI makes ChatGPT available for phone chats

OpenAI on Wednesday rolled out a new way to talk to its viral chatbot: 1-800-CHATGPT.

By dialing the U.S. number, which equates to 1-800-242-8478, or messaging it via WhatsApp, users can access an “easy, convenient, and low-cost way to try it out through familiar channels,” according to OpenAI. At first, the company said that callers will get 15 minutes free per month.

The news follows a barrage of updates from OpenAI as part of a 12-day release event, including its official rollout of Sora, the company’s buzzy AI video-generation tool, earlier this month.

OpenAI also recently hired its first chief marketing officer, indicating plans to spend more on marketing to grow its user base. And in October, OpenAI debuted a search feature within ChatGPT that positions it to better compete with search engines like Google, Microsoft‘s Bing and Perplexity and may attract more users who otherwise visited those sites to search the web.

It’s all part of a serious growth plan for OpenAI, as the company battles Amazon-backed Anthropic, Elon Musk’s xAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon for the biggest slice of the generative AI market, which is predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade.

The Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence startup, which burst into the mainstream last year thanks to the viral popularity of ChatGPT, closed its latest funding round in October at a valuation of $157 billion, including the $6.6 billion it raised from an extensive roster of investment firms and Big Tech companies. OpenAI also received a $4 billion revolving line of credit, bringing its total liquidity to more than $10 billion.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.