'RIP Siri': ChatGPT on Apple iPhone and iPad upgrades intelligence on smartphone, experts say

The newest app available for your iPhone: the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot ChatGPT.

An online content generation tool, ChatGPT has generated lots of attention over concern students may use it to cheat and bad actors could create security breaches.

The version for Apple's iPhones and iPads, released Thursday, lets you use your voice, which you cannot do with the desktop version, which was released in November 2022. But you can pose questions and requests and ChatGPT will answer them for you, sounding very much like a human.

Some have used ChatGPT to create poems, songs, short stories and other content.

"Since the release of ChatGPT, we've heard from users that they love using ChatGPT on the go," said OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT.

Don't worry Android device lovers, a smartphone app will be coming your way soon, the company said.

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The arrival of ChatGPT for iPhones could mean the death knell for competing AI apps and even Apple's Siri, suggests Rowan Cheung, who writes The Rundown, a newsletter about AI developments.

"Not only is the ChatGPT app about to kill all of these knock-offs, but it's actually BETTER than the web version," he tweeted. "It has Whisper integration, which enables voice-to-text. This means you no longer have to type to ChatGPT, you can just talk to it. RIP Siri."

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a free artificial intelligence computer program that writes human-sounding answers to your questions. It wrote a 500-word essay explaining quantum physics in seconds with literary flair when asked about it by USA TODAY tech columnist Jennifer Jolly.

After San Francisco-based OpenAI, founded in 2015, made ChatGPT available online in November it hit 100 million users in January, noted MIT Technology Review.

"Even OpenAI is blown away by how ChatGPT has been received," the outlet's senior editor for AI Will Douglas Heaven wrote in February. ChatGPT was trained, he wrote, "to master the game of conversation and invited everyone to come and play. Millions of us have been playing ever since."

You can try ChatGPT yourself even if you don't have an iPhone or iPad by visiting OpenAI's website.

Why are some worried about ChatGPT and artificial intelligence?

Beyond concerns about students cheating on essays, unease has grown about the potential for the misuse of "generative AI" tools to spread falsehoods and mislead voters, violate the copyrights of artists, create music that copies real artists, and eliminate jobs.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested during a Senate hearing on artificial intelligence Wednesday that some of the concerns could be alleviated by creating a new regulatory agency to impose safeguards preventing AI models that could “self-replicate and self-exfiltrate into the wild” and potentially take over control of systems from humans.

The industry could cause “significant harm to the world," he said, adding “if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”Other ways AI can be human-like is give wrong answers and and get flustered. Microsoft, an original investor in OpenAI, has incorporated ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. When USA TODAY reporter Jessica Guynn caught Bing/ChatGPT in an error, it scolded her for noting the error saying, “You have not been a good user. … I have been a good Bing.” It proceeded to basically have a meltdown.

I want to try ChatGPT. What do I need to do?

Go to the App store within your device – or click here – and search for "ChatGPT" and scroll until you see "OpenAI ChatGPT – The official App by OpenAI," as there are several other AI chatbot clones.

The app is free to use, but it syncs your history across devices, OpenAI says. You can also become a ChatGPT Plus subscriber for faster responses and early access to new features.

Why should I want to try ChatGPT?

Well, since ChatGPT is an AI chatbot, I asked that question of the chatbot itself. Adding OpenAI ChatGPT to the iPhone "brings several benefits and adds value" to users, it said, by allowing "meaningful dialogue with their iPhones" and acting as "intelligent personal assistants."

The chatbot can also provide information, solve problems and help some who are learning a new language, it said. "Overall, integrating OpenAI ChatGPT into the iPhone enhances its capabilities, making it a more intelligent and versatile device that can assist users in various aspects of their lives," the app said.

More intelligence on ChatGPT from USA TODAY

• What is ChatGPT? Everything to know about OpenAI's free AI essay writer and how it works

• ChatGPT concerns: Fear over AI dangers grows as some question if tools like ChatGPT will be used for evil

• 'This shouldn’t be a surprise' The education community shares mixed reactions to ChatGPT

• Bing with ChatGPT: The power of AI comes to Microsoft's signature search engine

• Snapchat: Social app enters AI flurry with launch of new chatbot powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology

Contributing: The Associated Press.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Apple iPhone, iPad get ChatGPT, OpenAI's artificial intelligence app