The Download: ChatGPT gets even chattier, and recreating space on Earth
The news: OpenAI has launched two new ways to interact with its flagship large language model in a major update. You can have a spoken conversation with the chatbot as if you were making a call, and it’s also able to answer questions about images.
How it works: The ability to talk to ChatGPT draws on two separate models. Whisper, OpenAI’s existing speech-to-text model, converts what you say into text, which is then fed to the chatbot. And a new text-to-speech model converts ChatGPT’s responses into spoken words.
Why it matters: This grab bag of updates shows just how fast OpenAI is spinning its experimental models into desirable products. OpenAI has spent much of the time since its surprise hit with ChatGPT last November polishing its technology and selling it to both private consumers and commercial partners—including Spotify. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
These scientists live like astronauts without leaving Earth
For around 25 years, people have played out what existence might be like on, or en route to, another world by studying the physiology and psychology of people living in Antarctica and other remote outposts.
Across the world, around 20 “analog” space facilities host people who volunteer to be study subjects, isolating themselves for weeks or months in polar stations, desert outposts, or even sealed habitats inside NASA centers.
