Happy Friday Reader! Omg, I fell asleep for a second and woke up in the future: OpenAI just announced their new ChatGPT-4o model, and I have good and bad news for you. Which would you like to hear first? Let's start with the good: you can enjoy an extra cocktail each month because you no longer need to pay the $20 fee to be in the "cool" ChatGPT-4 club. Cheers to that! 🍹 The bad news is that now you have to switch into play mode, and you no longer have excuses for telling me that you don't see the value of AI. Let's get those thinking juices flowing, shall we? Time to Tune In ❤️The new AI model is called GPT-4o (the "o" stands for omni). And I'm telling you if you want to sound smart in your next meeting, read this newsletter! Why am I so excited about GPT-4o, and why should you be too? The answer is simple: Soon, everyone will be upgraded to from ChatGPT 3.5 to GPT-4o for free, and that's when the real fun begins. And friends, this is a big deal. In my talks, I always asked my audience to raise their hands if they used the free ChatGPT, and almost every hand went up (although some of you cheated and pretended, but that’s okay :-). When I asked who used ChatGPT-4, the paid version, very few hands stayed up. It seemed that ‘FOGI’—the fear of getting started—was always greater than ‘FOMO’—the fear of missing out. As an educator, it was always a challenge to show you the real deal because ChatGPT-4, the paid version, is so much better than the free 3.5 version. But if you never tried it yourself, it’s like always watching movie trailers instead of directing your own feature film. You’re missing out on the deep satisfaction of creating and experiencing the whole story yourself. That $20-a-month barrier, which previously limited many features like memory, web browsing, or uploading images to paying subscribers, is now being dismantled. These features are rolling out to free users, showcasing also beginners how impressive AI can be for their jobs and how it can simplify their lives—this addresses the missing value you always told me about. So, the landscape has changed; those limitations no longer apply. Ready to Gear Up 🧰What is true: You all get upgraded for free to ChatGPT-4o over the following months to that level of amazingness;
But what is also true now is that all the excuses of “I don’t have time to play with AI,” “I don’t want to invest money to try it,” or “My boss is not allowing me to use it at work.” It is also over — you must level up your game and familiarize yourself with what you can do in the future. It’s not a nice-to-have anymore; it’s a must, no matter what your boss says. So, what’s so special about GPT-4o? I’m glad you asked! It is natively multimodal, which means it can “see,” “hear,” and “speak” in an integrated way with almost no delays. The “omni” in the model’s name means it blends all these modes together: It can now:
The GPT-4o is your new Swiss Army knife — or for my German girlfriends maybe the Thermomix — an AI all-arounder tool that can interact naturally with the world around you. Put your Power Play on 🕹️If you’re now thinking, ‘Wait, what is she talking about?’ I agree; it’s abstract when you haven’t seen it in action. So, let’s see some use cases from OpenAI where the future is leading. Some new "o" features will remain available only to paid ‘Plus’ customers, as well as "old" ones like creating custom GPTs (as in the 4.0 version). However, the new 4o free standard is fantastic for beginners, "normal" users, or those on a tight budget. This is what the future holds for you NOW (it reminds me a lot of the sci-fi movie “Her”): • Lost in Translation: Whether traveling or working with international colleagues, GPT-4o can translate in real-time, potentially changing the path of humanity (but sadly also destroying the translation business, I guess). • AI Assistant in Meetings: Imagine having an AI assistant in your next Teams or Zoom call, helping you transcribe, summarize, and even speak in real time. • Couple's Game Night (or Therapy): Boring nights with nothing to say or watch on Netflix? Play the couple's games or use GPT-4o as your couple's therapist. • Homework Helper: Kids hate doing homework and freak out when mom says something. Now, they can do their homework independently with GPT-4o's help. This is wild! Every kid can have a personal tutor who is infinitely patient and guides them in precisely the way they need at any time, day or night. One "invisible work" job down for me :-) • Job Interview Prep: If you think the "Her" movie was science fiction, I must correct you—10 years later, we are already in this stage. Check out the job interview prep use case: Ready to Accelerate 🚀Watching all these use cases, I can't help but think about how hard it has been up until this point to train a computer to recognize hand gestures… let alone give vocal feedback in real time. Now, it seems like computers turn more and more into humans with EQ: GPT-4o will be rolling out over the next few months, and I'm looking forward to testing it out — a historically fascinating moment but also a bit scary. Do I really want a giggling AI live feed from my camera to analyze my surroundings or, even worse, my facial expression? What do you think? Everyone can now start playing independently. The only permission you need is your own: "Just do it," Nike famously said. The use cases are endless. With the power of GPT-4o at your fingertips and those outstanding soft skills we women are known for, it’s your time to steer our sci-fi future in the right direction in the present — let’s get moving, no more excuses! ❤️ from Venice Beach Simone |
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