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ChatGPT's new phone number
PLUS: Perplexity's massive new $9B valuation
Rowan Cheung
December 19, 2024
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
OpenAI just turned back the clock with a surprisingly retro way to access ChatGPT — and your parents’ landline will work just as well as your smartphone.
With a new 800 ‘hotline’ number and WhatsApp integration, OpenAI just made accessing advanced AI as simple as dialing a friend. Let’s get into it…
In today’s AI rundown:
ChatGPT gets a new phone number
GitHub Copilot goes freemium
Create infinite looping AI videos
Perplexity hits $9B valuation in mega-round
5 new AI tools & 5 new AI jobs
More AI & tech news
Read time: 4 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENAI
Image source: OpenAI on YouTube
The Rundown: OpenAI just launched a surprising new way to access ChatGPT — through an old-school 1-800 number and also rolled out a new WhatsApp integration for global users during Day 10 of the company’s livestream event.
The details:
US users can now dial 1-800-CHATGPT to have voice conversations with the AI assistant, and they will receive 15 minutes of free calling time per month.
The phone service works on any device, from smartphones to vintage rotary phones — allowing accessibility without requiring modern tech.
A parallel WhatsApp integration also lets international users text with ChatGPT, though with feature limitations compared to the main app.
The WhatsApp version runs on a lighter model with daily usage caps, offering potential future upgrades like image analysis.
Why it matters: The days of operators or hotlines are long gone, but OpenAI’s latest move brings that style of information back to the AI age in an accessible way. By meeting users where they are — whether on WhatsApp or a landline phone — OpenAI is expanding AI’s reach beyond the tech-savvy crowd.
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MICROSOFT & GITHUB
Image source: GitHub
The Rundown: Microsoft-owned GitHub just announced a free tier of its AI coding Copilot available in its VS Code editor, marking a major shift in AI coding accessibility as the company celebrates a milestone of 150M developers on the platform.
The details:
The new free tier offers 2,000 monthly code completions and 50 chat messages, integrated directly into VS Code and GitHub's dashboard.
Users can access Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet or OpenAI's GPT-4o models, with premium models (o1, Gemini 1.5 Pro) remaining exclusive to paid tiers.
Free features include multi-file editing, terminal assistance, and project-wide context awareness for AI suggestions.
GitHub also announced its 150M developer milestone, up from 100M in early 2023.
Why it matters: GitHub has lofty ambitions to reach 1B developers globally, and removing price barriers would go a long way toward onboarding the masses and preventing existing users from flocking to the other free options on the market. The future of AI coding is increasingly looking more like a fundamental free utility than a premium tool.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: Sora’s AI video generator lets you transform short videos into a seamless loop that plays continuously without noticeable cuts or transitions.
Step-by-step:
Log into Sora with your Plus/Pro subscription.
Generate your base video by describing continuous motion (e.g., "dogs running across the screen").
Click the Loop button and choose your loop type (Short/Normal/Long).
Export your seamless loop for websites, social media, or digital displays.
Pro tip: For best results, choose subjects with natural continuous motion and avoid sudden changes in direction or speed.
PRESENTED BY INNOVATING WITH AI
The Rundown: Innovating with AI's new program, AI Consultancy Project, transforms AI enthusiasts into professional consultants — tapping into a market projected to reach $54.7B by 2032.
The 6-month program delivers:
Proven frameworks for client acquisition and service delivery
A step-by-step path to six-figure consulting income
Students who land their first AI client in as little as 3 days
PERPLEXITY
Image source: Bloomberg
The Rundown: AI search startup Perplexity just secured a massive $500M funding round, which triples its valuation to $9B, as the company continues to expand its challenge to traditional search engines.
The details:
The company's valuation has skyrocketed from $1B in April to $9B in this latest round, and the rise has come despite lawsuits from major publishers.
Since its launch in 2022, Perplexity has attracted over 15M active users, with recent feature additions including one-click shopping and financial analysis.
The startup has inked revenue-sharing deals with major publishers like Time and Fortune to address content usage concerns.
Perplexity also acquired Carbon, a data connectivity startup, to enable direct integration with platforms like Notion and Google Docs.
Why it matters: Perplexity’s rise is evidence of the shakeup underway in the search landscape, with other leaders like ChatGPT also rushing to turn their own platforms into modern search engines. With heavyweights like Google also revamping search for the AI age, will Perplexity be able to stay a step ahead of the industry giants?
NEW TOOLS & JOBS
🎥 Meta Video Seal - Open-source tool embedding invisible, durable watermarks in videos to ensure authenticity
🏋️ Impakt AI App - AI coach that can see, talk, and instruct your workouts to guide you toward your personal fitness goals
👨💻 Tempo Labs - AI-powered visual editor for React, giving PMs, designers, and engineers the ability to collaborate visually on code
🎵 TemPolor - Royalty-free, AI-powered music platform designed to empower content creators with customizable music that enhances storytelling
🦦 Otterly AI - Monitor brand and link visibility on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AIO
📊 Databricks - Director TPM, Infrastructure
🌍 Anyscale - Regional Sales Director
💼 Runway - Sr. Technical Recruiter
🖥️ Abridge - IT Support Manager
📱 Siena - Social Media & Community Manager
QUICK HITS
Free workshop by Section: Get proficient in prompting, learn solid AI use cases, and get confident using AI in just one hour. Sign up here.*
Microsoft reportedly acquired nearly 500,000 Hopper GPUs from Nvidia in 2024, emerging as the chipmaker’s biggest customer and nearly doubling the purchases from rivals like Meta and ByteDance.
Magnific AI released Magic Real, a new image generation model focusing on realistic outputs for professionals in architecture, photography, film, and interior design.
Odyssey revealed Explorer, a new generative world model that converts images into 3D environments, also adding Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull to its Board of Directors.
Open Vision Engineering introduced Pocket, a $79 physical AI-powered voice recorder that captures, transcribes, and organizes conversations.
Runway launched a new talent network platform, connecting AI filmmakers and production houses with brands and studios seeking expertise in the sector.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security unveiled DHSChat, an internally developed AI chatbot deployed on secure infrastructure for its 19,000 employees and agency users.
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