Striking up a romance with an AI assistant hasn’t been easy—you can quickly reach your flirting limit when the only topics of conversation are the weather and setting a 10-minute timer.

That’s about to change, because OpenAI revealed an update to ChatGPT yesterday that enables it to respond to your questions with spoken words, resulting in two-way conversations that are far more complex than the cocktail party small talk offered by Alexa and Siri.

What differentiates chatty ChatGPT from existing voice assistants?

• ChatGPT is based on a large language model (an algorithm trained on vast amounts of data), allowing it to have a free-flowing, seemingly inexhaustible dialogue with its human prompter.
• Meanwhile, digital assistants like Alexa and Siri have only been programmed with responses to a narrow set of questions. Amazon and Apple are racing to infuse large language models into their products, but OpenAI beat them to the punch.

ChatGPT has another edge on the competition because its voices (five in total) sound much more like people than existing digital assistants, which are very clearly robots.

When can you start using this? The voice feature is rolling out to ChatGPT Plus customers ($20/month) in the next two weeks and will be accessible to everyone else “soon after,” OpenAI said.

Oh, another update to ChatGPT: Along with giving ChatGPT the speech capabilities of a Disney animal, OpenAI also enabled the chatbot to respond to images you show it. So, in a use case that would be totally beneath our readers, you could theoretically take a picture of your math homework and have ChatGPT solve it for you.

Other major AI headlines

A ChatGPT rival receives a war chest from Amazon. The e-commerce giant will invest up to $4 billion in AI startup Anthropic to keep pace with peers Microsoft and Google in the AI arms race.

You will be able to listen to Bill Simmons rant about the Pats in German. Spotify said it’s using tech from OpenAI to translate podcasts into different languages—and in the host’s voice. It will be limited to select podcasters, episodes, and languages for now, but Spotify expects to make the feature more accessible in the future.—NF

Tech startup with traction: Turn your phone from a cost to an income source. Intriguing idea, isn’t it? This is why eyes are on the launch of Mode’s pre-IPO placement—the latest in a series of impressive raises among smartphone innovators, likely spurred by Apple’s recent $3t valuation.

Mode saw 150x revenue growth from 2019 to 2022, a leap that has made them one of America’s fastest-growing companies. Mode’s EarnPhone, a budget smartphone, has helped consumers earn and save $150m+ for activities like listening to music, playing games, and...even charging their devices!?

12,197 shareholders already participated in previously sold-out allocations. Claim an exclusive 90% bonus: $0.16/share before it’s sold out, too.

Pres. Biden will make history by walking UAW picket line today. One presidential historian told CNN that this will be the first time a sitting president has visited a picket line during a strike. Biden, who has long claimed he’s the most pro-union president in US history, said he will stand in solidarity with the striking Michigan auto workers as they “fight for a fair share of the value they helped create.” Biden’s visit will come one day before former President Trump is scheduled to give a speech in front of an audience of union members in Detroit.

North Korea reopens its borders. For the first time since Kim Jong Un closed the country off at the beginning of the pandemic, North Korea is now allowing foreign visitors, according to Chinese state media. The heavily sanctioned country will likely get some revenue from Chinese citizens, historically its top tourist group, and ramp up its minimal trade activity again. Though visitors reportedly must quarantine for two days, the reopening increases the chances of a mass Covid-19 outbreak since North Korea refused international vaccine aid.

US officials talk humanitarian aid with Armenia. Senior White House officials traveled to Armenia to meet with the country’s leaders and discuss how the US can help address the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh. Thousands of Armenians are fleeing the long-disputed territory out of fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing now that Azerbaijan has defeated the Armenian fighters there. Armenia has prepared hotel rooms and other accommodations in order to host tens of thousands of refugees.

The only realization more painful than finding a Lego piece with your bare foot is that producing those blocks sustainably is hard.

The Danish toymaker informed the world yesterday that it’ll have to abandon its plan to manufacture its trademark bricks out of recycled plastic bottles, since it would increase Lego’s energy usage.

• When Lego first announced the bottles-to-bricks idea two years ago, it estimated that material from a one-liter-sized bottle could produce approximately 10 bricks.
• But the shift toward recycled materials would require major carbon-intensive changes to the company’s current brickmaking process, which uses oil-based plastic. And the sample blocks just weren’t very good.

Building (green) blocks

Lego has been trying to engineer bricks from various eco-friendly materials (including corn and wheat) with limited success. The pieces must be easy to click together and pull apart and durable enough to withstand play from generations of boisterous builders.

Don’t tell the sweet-toothed toddlers in your life, but Lego has pulled off using sugar cane to create bioplastics for softer elements like trees and bushes.

Never back down, never what? Lego said it won’t give up experimenting with different ingredients and that it still aims to make its bricks sustainably by 2032.—SK

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Throw the sleek, black pumps into the back of your closet: It is once again time to plod around in the ugliest shoes you can find. Paris Fashion Week started yesterday, and one of the buzziest items hitting the runway is Italian designer Marni’s “big foot 2.0”—a tennis shoe that looks like it comes with its own air compressor.

The pneumatic pair is part of the “clowncore” fashion movement that’s grown in popularity over the last few years. Think MSCHF’s big red boots that were spotted on celebs like Doja Cat and Lil Nas X. A lot of looks in the Paris haute couture fashion shows earlier this year also referenced clowns and harlequins.

Ugly shoes have always been hot. These overstuffed abominations are just the latest innovation in a long line of divisive shoes that bring in buckets of cash. Crocs reported a record $1 billion in quarterly revenue in July, Birkenstock is planning to go public next month with an estimated valuation of $8 billion, and Deckers Outdoor Corp has built a $13.3 billion empire out of Uggs, Tevas, and Hokas.—MM

Stat: The Miami Dolphins put the Denver Broncos out to pasture on Sunday, dropping 70 points in an NFL game for the first time since Washington did it in 1966. What’s Miami’s secret? Turns out the Fins are as fast on land as they are in water (*rimshot*). Head coach Mike McDaniel emphasizes getting the ball to his speedy wide receivers and running backs—many of whom have track backgrounds—with room to run by defenders. It’s working. Dolphins players have accounted for the six fastest plays of the season, including Tyreek Hill’s 22.1 mph catch on Sunday, according to the NFL’s Next Gen stats.

Quote: “I think he’s been watching too much Succession, clearly.”

Brian Cox, who played media titan Logan Roy on the hit HBO series, is not a fan of the real-life mogul who inspired the character. After Rupert Murdoch announced that he was stepping down from Fox last week and officially putting his eldest son, Lachlan, in charge, Cox went on the BBC to rip Murdoch. The actor also pointed out that, unlike his Succession character, who is entirely self-made, Murdoch inherited his father’s Australian newspaper.

Read: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman insists the AI he is creating could destroy us even as he hastens its advancement. Do we know enough about him? (New York Magazine)

Listen: Pretend you’re a character in a Serious Movie with “Experience” and more musical stylings of Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi.

Learn: The new phone call etiquette, which we can only hope shames people into not using speakerphone in public.

Feast: A complete guide to the best frozen mozzarella sticks on the market.

Reminisce: With this Hot Ones interview featuring the now-middle-aged members of NSYNC, who are doing nothing to quell rumors of a reunion tour.

New drop : Parks Project’s limited-edition fleeces are inspired by parks and made just for you using 100% certified recycled polyester sherpa. Turn heads and get 15% off with code PARKSBREW15.*

Cover your bases: Cybersecurity isn’t just for heavy hitters—it helps everyone in the field, including startups. Protect your org with IT Brew’s virtual event on Sept. 28, sponsored by Dell. Save your seat.*

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Brew Mini: Anyone who loves to quote The Bear will knock out one clue easily. The rest of the puzzle, though, is tougher than a brisket. Play it here.

One-hit wonders

Somehow we missed National One-Hit Wonder Day yesterday. To remedy this egregious mistake, here’s a trivia question on one-hit wonders. We’ll give you a musical artist who produced one massive song, and you have to name their one-hit wonder.

1. Lou Bega
2. Gotye ft. Kimbra
3. Dexy’s Midnight Runners
4. Toni Basil
5. Eagle-Eye Cherry
6. Fountains of Wayne

1. “Mambo No. 5 (a Little Bit Of…)”
2. “Somebody That I Used to Know”
3. “Come on Eileen”
4. “Mickey”
5. “Save Tonight”
6. “Stacy’s Mom”

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: abominations, meaning “things that cause disgust or hatred.” Thanks to Ben from Denver for the suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.