ChatGPT is now available as a free app, downloadable on iOS devices in the United States. While there’s no version on Android yet, OpenAI said in its statement that “ChatGPT will be coming to [Android] devices soon” and other countries “in the coming weeks.”
ChatGPT launched in November 2022 and quickly ballooned in popularity. A number of companies have paired with ChatGPT despite how new it is, including General Motors to create a virtual assistant for cars, Discord to have an AI chatbot in servers, and Zillow for better home searching. Others, like Google, have been accused of using its data without a partnership.
It’s had its fair share of controversies, too. One YouTuber was able to generate free Windows product keys. In March, a bug temporarily allowed users to see other users’ chat titles. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner launched an investigation in April over allegations that ChatGPT is collecting, using, and disclosing personal information without consent.
The iOS app is free and syncs your conversations between devices. It also includes Whisper, OpenAI’s speech-recognition software, meaning that it can accept verbal prompts.
Previously, only spam apps pretending to let you access ChatGPT were available. The closest you could get to the real thing was the Microsoft Bing app, which could use the GPT-4 chatbot.
“With the ChatGPT app for iOS,” OpenAI’s statement said, “we’re taking another step towards our mission by transforming state-of-the-art research into useful tools that empower people, while continuously making them more accessible.”
