Call Annie is a new application that allows users to video chat directly with bots provided by ChatGPT. The application has a female avatar that is able to chat normally with the user.
According to Neowin, the App Store listing describes the app as capable of doing a variety of chat topics that the “AI friend” is capable of, like understanding complex topics, learning new languages, and preparing for interviews Also according to the note, chatting face-to-face in real time feels natural and faster than typing and reading text like ChatGPT currently does
The video shared by several users shows that, although the answer doesn’t seem to have much lag, the bot’s voice in the recordings sounds mechanical. The app’s developers said in a Reddit post that the original image of Annie’s face was created with Midjourney, but the facial expressions were animated in real-time using the above processing. device to match the generated voice. So the app will need the Neural Engine from Apple as well as its video calling mode which is only available on iPhone 12 and later models.
Users with older iPhone models are limited to audio-only calls. However, Call Annie is also compatible with Mac computers with Apple M-series chips and running macOS 13 or later.
The bot can also assist users while traveling by providing information about various things such as local customs and must-see attractions. When it comes to privacy, the developers insist that all conversations with the AI bot are kept confidential. When the bot responds to a user, they say no voice recordings are saved and only “recordings are saved/forwarded to ChatGPT to receive all conversations”.
Interestingly, many Reddit users said the bot asserts “Its name is Samantha”, which suggests that it appears to be the successor to an older chatbot named Samantha. The developers say the problem will be fixed soon.
Regarding ChatGPT, a recent report said that the operating cost of OpenAI ‘s AI chatbot can be up to 700,000 USD per day. OpenAI also just added an incognito mode to ChatGPT to allow users to turn off chat history and collect training data
