Making dinner reservations can be stressful and time-consuming, but thankfully help may soon be on the way.
From as early as next year ChatGPT will be able to call restaurants and make bookings, according to an AI expert.
Aidan Meller, director of the Ai-Da robot project, thinks a big update to the popular AI tool is due in 2024.
Mr Meller says that the chatbot will soon be able to take actions in the world, rather than just act as a text editor.
The last update to ChatGPT, version 4, came in the spring of this year and has raised hopes for big improvements in version 5.
Calling up to make restaurant bookings can be stressful, but according to AI experts help may soon be on the way
ChatGPT’s next update could give it the ability to call up restaurants and make reservations on your behalf without any need for you to intervene
While non-paying users still make do with version ChatGPT 3.5, version 4 brought improved memory and also enabled data-to-text functions.
Mr Meller predicts that ChatGPT5, which is expected in 2024, will include functions that let the chatbot expand into more day-to-day functions.
Mr Meller says: ‘You could say to your phone “Can you book me the restaurant on Monday at seven”‘ and ChatGPT Five will be able to phone up the restaurant, speak to them audibly, say “Hi, I’m trying to get an appointment for seven” and book it for you, and then come back to you and say “we’ve now done that”.’
‘Can you imagine how that’s going to be useful in business?’ Mr Meller adds.
Currently, the latest version of ChatGPT has limited capacity to act outside of editing text.
The latest updates added functions that allow the bot to interact with data sets and respond to picture prompts.
However, there is currently no text-to-speech function that would allow the bot to call a restaurant on your behalf.
Mr Meller isn’t part of OpenAI, the firm responsible for ChatGPT, although he is an expert in AI.
ChatGPT is expected to update to version 5 at some point in 2024, version 4 has already brought some big improvements including the ability to interact with data
Mr Meller’s own creation, Ai-Da the robot, has also made some groundbreaking steps in AI innovation.
Ai-Da, best known as a robotic artist, became the first robot to speak in a House of Lords debate in October last year.
The robot also gave evidence as part of an ongoing inquiry into the future of the creative industries, such as arts, design, fashion and music.
In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, Ai-Da said that she feels ‘quite nervous when speaking in public’.
Ai-Da is will also help deliver the Royal Institution’s annual Christmas lectures, which are being broadcast this week.
Mr Aidan Meller, creator of the Ai-Da robot (shown here), says that AI will have a seismic impact on all industries in the next four years
Speaking ahead of Ai-Da’s appearance, Mr Mellor told BBC 4’s Today Programme that AI will have a huge impact on all of our daily lives.
Mr Meller says: ‘AI is incredibly powerful – it’s going to transform society as we know it, and I think we’re really only at the very beginning.
‘We have these explosions of development, things like ChatGPT that people know about, but in actual fact as more and more people get to grips with it, we think that by 2026 or 2027, there’s going to be a seismic change as AI is in all industries.’
Speaking about the upcoming Christmas lectures, of which the theme is AI, Mr Meller told the BBC that AI has the potential to undermine our ability to find accurate information.
Mr Meller says: ‘I think AI is going to enable us to have very fake situations, and we’re not going to know whether they’re fake or not – that is where lies the problem.
‘We don’t know what we’re dealing with, and we hope that these lectures by the Royal Institution are going to be able to really open that topic up.
‘Remember we’ve got the elections next year, very worrying times for things that are fake and not fake, so in actual fact it is a very serious matter.’
