7 ms·

> Advanced Voice is not yet available in the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein. That's disappointing. I wonder if it's related to leg

> Advanced Voice is not yet available in the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein. That's disappointing. I wonder if it's related to legal issues, technical issues, or just doing a phased rollout?

M4v3R 2y ago
It's definitely legal issues, probably the same reason Apple is not rolling some of the new features like Apple Intelligence in iOS 18 to EU. [0] https://www.macworld.com/article/2374452/apple-intelligence-iphone-mirroring-ios-18-eu-users.html https://www.macworld.com/article/2374452/apple-intelligence-...
- jacooper 2y ago
  I don't believe this, gpt4o and chatgpt is already available in the EU. Adding advanced voice mode doesn't change anything.
  - mewpmewp2 2y ago
    The main thing compared to the old voice mode is that your speech instead of being fed to a speech to text model is now fed to the LLM directly. I'm not sure if that would be enough to trigger a need for external review though. If they were using your voice recording for training purposes, then of course absolutely. Which then for a good reason. Or it could also be about the way the voice recording is transported or where it's stored, for how long it's stored etc. Because speech to text could be achieved even offline and not in cloud and be there for shorter period of time. You can delete the recording and just use the text. If the voice recording is tokenized in an ongoing conversation then it would be stored indefinitely.
    - lxgr 2y ago
      In the end, you can put whatever you want to external review, and similarly to how nobody gets fired for hiring a big consulting firm, nobody gets fired for flagging something for legal review...
  - walthamstow 2y ago
    It doesn't have to change anything. OpenAI are doing it for political reasons
  - pelorat 2y ago
    This voice mode can understand emotions, something the AI act regulates as "very risky"
- nindalf 2y ago
  > Apple Intelligence was only ever going to support American English this year anyway, with other languages coming in 2025 and beyond. That would somewhat limit its effectiveness in the EU to begin with ... Their AI product wasn't ready for other languages, not even British English where the DMA definitely doesn't apply. A person would have to be very naive to believe Apple directly here. They just want to generate bad press for the DMA.
  - layer8 2y ago
    Apple will be rolling out AI in Switzerland but not in the EU, despite shared sets of languages.
    - lxgr 2y ago
      We don't know that yet. My suspicion is that Apple is stomping its foot as loudly as possible about the evil European Commission while getting language/localization support in order. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they suddenly and miraculously discovered a way to somehow still be compliant in the last minute and launch the feature as planned to not endanger their sales.
guappa 2y ago
When something is not available in EU, you instantly know they're up to no good. edit: Sorry if privacy hurts your feelings, people who downvote me.
- lynx23 2y ago
  > ... you instantly know they're up to no good. You're refering to the EU here, right?
  - guappa 2y ago
    No. Not that everything they do is good. But something being illegal in the EU is a bad indicator for sure.
    - ben_w 2y ago
      On privacy, I agree. AI it's harder to say, especially with the attitudes of the people making it being a split personality mix of "wow this is incredible it might kill everyone" — that's enough of a surprise to legislators that I don't know what to predict nor who has the right approach from USA (e/acc), EU (conservative), China (not sure, suspect 'harmonious' but acknowledge I'm projecting a national stereotype).
    - pelorat 2y ago
      Right, but this is not illegal, nor is the AI act any sort of criminal law. At Unsurprisingly all they want is to avoid insane fines due to vague EU regulations.
- mewpmewp2 2y ago
  To give benefit of the doubt, it could also be just about a review process, it might come available after a review. E.g. one valid use-case would be about storing your voice recording on the cloud in a tokenized format. Because the model is now directly taking your voice, which I assume as tokens, it can't be immediately deleted as opposed to speech to text, which can be quickly used to convert to text and then deleted.
- 2y ago
sunaookami 2y ago
Sam Altman only said this: https://x.com/sama/status/1838864011321872407 https://x.com/sama/status/1838864011321872407 >except for jurisdictions that require additional external review
- crimsoneer 2y ago
  ...I'm not at all clear what this external review would be for either the UK or Switzerland.
  - famouswaffles 2y ago
    Under a strict reading of the AI Act, advanced voice mode would be illegal because it is the "use of AI systems to infer emotions of a natural person in the areas of workplace and education institutions, except where the use of AI system is intended to be put in place or into the market for medical or safety reasons"
    - crimsoneer 2y ago
      But the AI Act doesn't apply in the UK, and as far as I know doesn't in Switzerland either...?
      - famouswaffles 2y ago
        Sorry I don't think it does either. Kind of glazed over the fact you were talking about the UK specifically It's just speculation on my part that that's the actual reason for some of those markets. It might have to do with (old) EU specific regulations. I know the UK adopted many EU laws to expedite brexit.
        sunaookami 2y ago
        Someone else on X speculated that it might be in relation to GDPR article 35 and 36. GDPR would make more sense since the UK still has it and I think other non-EU countries are also included/have similar laws.
terhechte 2y ago
Did someone figure out if it works when I use a VPN?
- coreyh14444 2y ago
  In Denmark with a Finnish Teams Account. I've tried NordVPN, uninstalled, reinstalled. From my ipad and iphone and no luck.
raverbashing 2y ago
I initially thought this had to do with regulation as well, but people trying it over a VPN are complaining about latency, which makes me believe there's a technical (deployment regions) reason for it as well (Also language reasons as well - though it seems it works with other languages) How well does it work in the UK (and understanding its regional accents?)
- IncreasePosts 2y ago
  I doubt they would bother blocking the 1 user from Liechtenstein if it was about keeping the usage numbers low for performance reasons.
  - raverbashing 2y ago
    Not blocked due to load, but latency due to distance
isodev 2y ago
Or perhaps it’s just not that good with other languages and accents.
crimsoneer 2y ago
Given it includes the UK, I assume it's GDPR (and probably linked to the provenance of training data?) rather than any new AI act stuff.
casualbob_uk 2y ago
Im in the UK and its just been enabled for my pro account about 10 mins ago
casualbob_uk 2y ago
The app announced I had access to advanced voice mode about 10 mins ago, gave me the guided tour and got me to chose a voice, and now it's gone again, with the message back that it's on its way During this time, I dont believe I actually had access to it, as it wouldn't hum, laugh, pick up on my voice tones etc Got my hopes up!

M4v3R 2y ago

It's definitely legal issues, probably the same reason Apple is not rolling some of the new features like Apple Intelligence in iOS 18 to EU. [0] https://www.macworld.com/article/2374452/apple-intelligence-iphone-mirroring-ios-18-eu-users.html https://www.macworld.com/article/2374452/apple-intelligence-...

jacooper 2y ago
I don't believe this, gpt4o and chatgpt is already available in the EU. Adding advanced voice mode doesn't change anything.
- mewpmewp2 2y ago
  The main thing compared to the old voice mode is that your speech instead of being fed to a speech to text model is now fed to the LLM directly. I'm not sure if that would be enough to trigger a need for external review though. If they were using your voice recording for training purposes, then of course absolutely. Which then for a good reason. Or it could also be about the way the voice recording is transported or where it's stored, for how long it's stored etc. Because speech to text could be achieved even offline and not in cloud and be there for shorter period of time. You can delete the recording and just use the text. If the voice recording is tokenized in an ongoing conversation then it would be stored indefinitely.
  - lxgr 2y ago
    In the end, you can put whatever you want to external review, and similarly to how nobody gets fired for hiring a big consulting firm, nobody gets fired for flagging something for legal review...
- walthamstow 2y ago
  It doesn't have to change anything. OpenAI are doing it for political reasons
- pelorat 2y ago
  This voice mode can understand emotions, something the AI act regulates as "very risky"
nindalf 2y ago
> Apple Intelligence was only ever going to support American English this year anyway, with other languages coming in 2025 and beyond. That would somewhat limit its effectiveness in the EU to begin with ... Their AI product wasn't ready for other languages, not even British English where the DMA definitely doesn't apply. A person would have to be very naive to believe Apple directly here. They just want to generate bad press for the DMA.
- layer8 2y ago
  Apple will be rolling out AI in Switzerland but not in the EU, despite shared sets of languages.
  - lxgr 2y ago
    We don't know that yet. My suspicion is that Apple is stomping its foot as loudly as possible about the evil European Commission while getting language/localization support in order. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they suddenly and miraculously discovered a way to somehow still be compliant in the last minute and launch the feature as planned to not endanger their sales.

guappa 2y ago

When something is not available in EU, you instantly know they're up to no good. edit: Sorry if privacy hurts your feelings, people who downvote me.

lynx23 2y ago
> ... you instantly know they're up to no good. You're refering to the EU here, right?
- guappa 2y ago
  No. Not that everything they do is good. But something being illegal in the EU is a bad indicator for sure.
  - ben_w 2y ago
    On privacy, I agree. AI it's harder to say, especially with the attitudes of the people making it being a split personality mix of "wow this is incredible it might kill everyone" — that's enough of a surprise to legislators that I don't know what to predict nor who has the right approach from USA (e/acc), EU (conservative), China (not sure, suspect 'harmonious' but acknowledge I'm projecting a national stereotype).
  - pelorat 2y ago
    Right, but this is not illegal, nor is the AI act any sort of criminal law. At Unsurprisingly all they want is to avoid insane fines due to vague EU regulations.
mewpmewp2 2y ago
To give benefit of the doubt, it could also be just about a review process, it might come available after a review. E.g. one valid use-case would be about storing your voice recording on the cloud in a tokenized format. Because the model is now directly taking your voice, which I assume as tokens, it can't be immediately deleted as opposed to speech to text, which can be quickly used to convert to text and then deleted.
2y ago

sunaookami 2y ago

Sam Altman only said this: https://x.com/sama/status/1838864011321872407 https://x.com/sama/status/1838864011321872407 >except for jurisdictions that require additional external review

crimsoneer 2y ago
...I'm not at all clear what this external review would be for either the UK or Switzerland.
- famouswaffles 2y ago
  Under a strict reading of the AI Act, advanced voice mode would be illegal because it is the "use of AI systems to infer emotions of a natural person in the areas of workplace and education institutions, except where the use of AI system is intended to be put in place or into the market for medical or safety reasons"
  - crimsoneer 2y ago
    But the AI Act doesn't apply in the UK, and as far as I know doesn't in Switzerland either...?
    - famouswaffles 2y ago
      Sorry I don't think it does either. Kind of glazed over the fact you were talking about the UK specifically It's just speculation on my part that that's the actual reason for some of those markets. It might have to do with (old) EU specific regulations. I know the UK adopted many EU laws to expedite brexit.
      - sunaookami 2y ago
        Someone else on X speculated that it might be in relation to GDPR article 35 and 36. GDPR would make more sense since the UK still has it and I think other non-EU countries are also included/have similar laws.

terhechte 2y ago

Did someone figure out if it works when I use a VPN?

coreyh14444 2y ago
In Denmark with a Finnish Teams Account. I've tried NordVPN, uninstalled, reinstalled. From my ipad and iphone and no luck.

raverbashing 2y ago

I initially thought this had to do with regulation as well, but people trying it over a VPN are complaining about latency, which makes me believe there's a technical (deployment regions) reason for it as well (Also language reasons as well - though it seems it works with other languages) How well does it work in the UK (and understanding its regional accents?)

IncreasePosts 2y ago
I doubt they would bother blocking the 1 user from Liechtenstein if it was about keeping the usage numbers low for performance reasons.
- raverbashing 2y ago
  Not blocked due to load, but latency due to distance

isodev 2y ago

Or perhaps it’s just not that good with other languages and accents.

crimsoneer 2y ago

Given it includes the UK, I assume it's GDPR (and probably linked to the provenance of training data?) rather than any new AI act stuff.

casualbob_uk 2y ago

Im in the UK and its just been enabled for my pro account about 10 mins ago

casualbob_uk 2y ago

The app announced I had access to advanced voice mode about 10 mins ago, gave me the guided tour and got me to chose a voice, and now it's gone again, with the message back that it's on its way During this time, I dont believe I actually had access to it, as it wouldn't hum, laugh, pick up on my voice tones etc Got my hopes up!