In Short
- ChatGPT was released for public use as a web version late last year.
- OpenAI rolled out its app for iOS earlier this month.
- Google’s ChatGPT rival Bard is not available in an app to users yet.
By Abhik SenguptaThe ChatGPT app for iPhones by OpenAI is rolling out to more countries. The company CTO Mira Murati said in a tweet that the app was available in Albania, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Brazil, South Korea, New Zealand, the UK, Nigeria, and Nicaragua. Murati adds that the app would roll out to more countries soon. The next phase could include India as well, where the AI (artificial intelligence) powered chatbot is gradually becoming popular. ChatGPT is not yet available in app form for Android phones.
ChatGPT was released for public use as a web version late last year and has become one of the most successful tech launches. The chatbot became the fastest-growing platform in the world, clocking 100 million users in the first two months after its public release, which apps like Instagram and TikTok couldn’t achieve. The platform is available to use on smartphones but via the web version, which is not always smooth. OpenAI, also the creator of the popular text-to-image generator bot Dall-E, released the iOS app in the US last week.
The app version offers the same performance as the ChatGPT website, that is, offering replies to complex queries in a conversational manner. ChatGPT is also capable of editing long articles, reviewing app codes, and solving math problems. Users with a ChatGPT Plus membership ($20 or Rs 1,655 per month) can enjoy extra features, including support for plugins, instant replies, and no wait time. The iOS app also promises these features to existing Plus members.
The rollout of the ChatGPT apps in these new countries could be highly useful for users to access information on the go as the chatbot understands languages, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The chatbot can also talk in Hindi, although the proficiency may not be as high as it is in English.
Meanwhile, users in countries where the ChatGPT app is not yet available can download Microsoft’s Bing app to use ChatGPT-like Bing Chat conversational tool to get instant answers. Bing Chat is free to use for all, and users can access the bot with their Microsoft email (or registered phone number). Notably, Microsoft’s AI tool also leverages the power of ChatGPT’s GPT language module due to the company’s strategic partnership with OpenAI. The Bing Chat can be more useful if you use a lot of Microsoft Office apps, since the company is slowly adding AI capabilities to Word, Excel and more.
On the other hand, Google’s ChatGPT rival Bard is not available in an app to users yet.
Julian Marks
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