OpenAI has rolled out a significant update to its Advanced Voice Mode. Making conversations with ChatGPT’s AI voice assistant feel more natural and less interruptive. The new features, announced Monday, aim to fix a common frustration users face. When AI assistants cut them off mid-sentence or during brief pauses.
Manuka Stratta, a post-training researcher at OpenAI, shared the update in a video posted to the company’s official social media channels. She explained that the latest improvements are designed to help the AI assistant handle natural human speech better. Especially those moments when people pause to think or catch their breath.
With this update, free ChatGPT users will now experience fewer interruptions when using Advanced Voice Mode. The AI will wait more patiently, allowing users to pause during conversations without fear of being cut off.
Meanwhile, paying users — including subscribers across OpenAI’s Plus, Teams, Edu, Business, and Pro plans — will see even greater improvements. Not only will their AI assistant interrupt less frequently, but it will also adopt a more refined personality. According to OpenAI, the assistant is now “more direct, engaging, concise, specific, and creative” in its responses. Offering users a smoother and more dynamic conversational experience.
This upgrade comes as the AI voice assistant space heats up with new competitors pushing the boundaries of what AI can sound like. Sesame, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz and founded by Oculus cofounder Brendan Iribe. Recently went viral with its ultra-natural AI voices, Maya and Miles. Meanwhile, tech giants like Amazon are racing to launch their own large language model-powered voice assistants, with a new AI-driven version of Alexa on the horizon.
With these Advanced Voice Mode updates, OpenAI is making it clear that it’s serious about keeping ChatGPT competitive — not just as a text-based assistant but as a natural-sounding AI companion capable of real-time conversations that feel more human.
