ChatGPT is now a smartphone app, which could be good news for people the artificial intelligence chatbot and bad news for all the clone apps that have tried to profit off the technology.

The free app became available on iPhones and iPads in the U.S. on Thursday and will later be coming to Android devices. Unlike the desktop web version, the mobile version on AppleB次元官网网址檚 iOS operating system also enables users to speak to it using their voice.

The company that makes it, OpenAI, said it will remain ad-free but B次元官网网址渟yncs your history across devices.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e starting our rollout in the U.S. and will expand to additional countries in the coming weeks,B次元官网网址� said a blog post announcing the new app, which is described in the App Store as the B次元官网网址渙fficial appB次元官网网址� by OpenAI.

ItB次元官网网址檚 been more than five months since OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public, sparking at its ability to generate convincingly human-like essays, poems, form letters and conversational answers to almost any question. But the San Francisco startup never seemed to be in a hurry to get it onto phones B次元官网网址� where most people access the internet.

B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e not trying to get people to use it more and more,B次元官网网址� OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a hearing over how to such as those built by his company.

The delay in getting the product on phones helped fuel a rise of clones built on similar technology, some of which the security firm Sophos described as B次元官网网址渇leecewareB次元官网网址� in a report this week because they push unsuspecting users toward enrolling in a free trial that converts into a recurring subscription, or use intrusive advertising techniques.

Another privacy researcher, Simon Migliano, said the official ChatGPT app might eventually starve similar-sounding apps of new users, but that could take a while because many of those apps were given names deliberately intended to confuse people into thinking they already have the official app. They were also B次元官网网址渉yper-optimizedB次元官网网址� to rank highly in AppleB次元官网网址檚 App Store search results, said Migliano, head of research at Top10VPN.com.

B次元官网网址淔or many of those who have already downloaded a clone, itB次元官网网址檚 likely they will simply stick with the ChatGPT apps they already have and continue to have their personal data harvested and sold,B次元官网网址� Migliano said.

Altman told Congress this week that his company doesnB次元官网网址檛 try to maximize engagement because it doesnB次元官网网址檛 have an advertising-based business, and because itB次元官网网址檚 costly to train and run its AI models on computer chips known as graphics processing units.

B次元官网网址淚n fact, weB次元官网网址檙e so short on GPUs, the less people use our products, the better,B次元官网网址� Altman said.

The new app does include an option to pay for a premium version of ChatGPT with additional features. Along with those subscriptions, the company makes money from developers and corporations that pay to integrate its AI models into their own apps and products.

Its chief partner, Microsoft, of dollars into the startup and has integrated ChatGPT-like technology into its own products, including a chatbot for its search engine Bing.

The ChatGPT app will now compete for attention with the Bing chatbot already available on iPhones, and could eventually compete with a mobile version of . Versions of OpenAIB次元官网网址檚 chatbot technology can also be found in other apps, such as the B次元官网网址淢y AIB次元官网网址� feature on Snapchat.

Matt OB次元官网网址檅rien, The Associated Press

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