In its bid to provide a seamless AI experience to the global audience, OpenAI announced on April 1 that its generative AI tool ChatGPT will no longer require users to create an account to access its services.
However, users without an account could face some limitations while using the chatbot. Other products like DALL-E 3 still require premium access and account creation.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT Implements Content Safeguard
OpenAI is rolling out its free ChatGPT feature to different markets to make AI accessible to more audiences. The login-free experience is only for its ChatGPT 3.5 series.
We’re rolling out the ability to start using ChatGPT instantly, without needing to sign-up, so it’s even easier to experience the potential of AI. https://t.co/juhjKfQaoD pic.twitter.com/TIVoX8KFDB
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) April 1, 2024
The announcement follows a survey from Pew Research that revealed that a third of Americans have never heard of ChatGPT. Besides driving the adoption of its core AI product, the new rollout could also make ChatGPT enticing to privacy-conscious users who would appreciate using it without revealing their private data. There’s still a downside to this. OpenAI may use the information provided on the app for model training.
Model training involves using search prompts to improve the chatbot’s ability to generate relevant responses. This feature will be available to both registered and unregistered users, giving them control over whether their interactions are used to train the AI.
zero clicks to use chatgpt https://t.co/xtPbOKHaGa
— ChatGPT (@ChatGPTapp) April 1, 2024
In addition, account-free ChatGPT comes with some limitations.
Notably, the login-free version does not support the storage of chats, voice conversations or the ability to provide custom instructions.
It could be recalled that OpenAI’s ChatGPT was first launched and rolled out at the end of 2022. Since its launch, the generative AI tool has become one of the most used AI platforms. OpenAI noted that ChatGPT has over 100 million weekly users across 185 countries, which aligns with SimilarWeb tracker data that ranks the tool as the most visited AI chatbot site, with an estimated 1.6 billion visitors in February 2024.
SimilarWeb data shows ChatGPT had 1.6B visitors in February 2024
While this is impressive and has set the stage for OpenAI’s ChatGPT to double these figures, the rise of data abuse has elicited concerns among AI enthusiasts and experts.
Simon Willson, the co-creator of Django, a renowned Python-based web framework, expressed his concerns on an X post, as he said:
“No login required to use https://chat.openai.com with GPT 3.5 now (in some markets)
I wonder how their scraping prevention works? I imagine the temptation for people to abuse this as a free 3.5 API will be pretty strong.”
Nevertheless, the AI community believes that the latest update will be a catalyst for the advancement of AI and the creation of AI tokens that will democratize access to artificial intelligence models.
OpenAI’s Generative AI Scores More Global Expansion Points
In addition to its “no account” feature, OpenAI is gearing up to open an office in Tokyo before the end of April 2024. This would be its third international office as it continues to expand its global operations.
OpenAI plans to open its first office in Asia in April with a location in Tokyo as the artificial intelligence pioneer begins to build out its international operations – Bloomberg $MSFT
— Evan (@StockMKTNewz) April 1, 2024
OpenAI already has offices in London and Dublin, which were opened in 2023.
Meanwhile, the firm recently unveiled Voice Engine on March 29, a new generative AI tool that can mimic human voices with high accuracy and a range of use cases that includes accessibility services.
We’re sharing our learnings from a small-scale preview of Voice Engine, a model which uses text input and a single 15-second audio sample to generate natural-sounding speech that closely resembles the original speaker. https://t.co/yLsfGaVtrZ
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) March 29, 2024
OpenAI shared samples from early tests of the tool, which used a 15-second sample of someone speaking to generate an imitation of their voice. This advancement in the firm’s generative AI came on the heels of Elon Musk’s announcement to open-source AI chatbot Grok to rival ChatGPT.