As reported recently, ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice mode is launching this week for all ChatGPT Plus and Teams subscribers. However, the launch won’t happen in the EU, and we think we know why.
A tweet by OpenAI on X.com states simply, “Advanced Voice is not yet available in the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein.” In response, a tweet by X.com user Dean W Ball highlights a section of the EU AI Act, a piece of the EU legislation that restricts “the placing on the market, the putting into service for this specific purpose, or the use of AI systems to infer emotions of a natural person.”
This would mean that ChatGPT Advanced Voice mode would be illegal in EU workplaces and schools because it can recognize emotions in the user’s voice.
Under a strict reading of the AI Act, ChatGPT advanced voice is *illegal* in EU workplaces and schools because the system can recognize a user’s emotions. That’s prohibited by the AI Act. https://t.co/w7697M4VBa pic.twitter.com/eDdJr7Y01USeptember 24, 2024