AutoVehicle TechVolkswagen’s ChatGPT struggled to wow me at CES, but I think its future could still be brightHere’s how Volkswagen plans to improve the new ChatGPT powers of its voice assistantWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
AutoVehicle TechVolkswagen’s ChatGPT struggled to wow me at CES, but I think its future could still be brightHere’s how Volkswagen plans to improve the new ChatGPT powers of its voice assistantWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Here’s how Volkswagen plans to improve the new ChatGPT powers of its voice assistant
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Volkswagen)
(Image credit: Volkswagen)
Volkswagen kicked offCES 2024with news that its in-car voice assistant willgain support for ChatGPTlater this year. The artificial intelligence then promptly struggled to understand questions and made up a car company called Flux.
It wasn’t the best start, but we all know live demonstrations of unfinished technology are a risky business, and ChatGPT is no stranger to making mistakes. But I think VW’s work here is still worthy of your attention, and I have faith that the finished product will impress.
In-car voice control systems have improved in recent years, mostly thanks to manufacturers partnering with giants likeAmazonandGoogle, whoseAlexaand Google Assistant platforms bring the sort of intelligence that was sorely missing previously. ChatGPT – or other large language models like it – have the potential to bring an extra level of intelligence to in-car, human/machine conversation.
They can find detailed answers to almost any question, for a start. And they can understand a great deal more about what you’re trying to say; they get the intonation of your commands. Volkswagen says ChatGPT helps its IDA voice control system understand what you want when you say you’re cold, for example, or that you need to buy a new phone charger.
(Image credit: Volkswagen)
(Image credit: Volkswagen)
Jan Wehmeyer, Cerence’s vice president for business leads in Europe, told me atCES: “We have still the possibility, if you provoke it, that ChatGPT will start to hallucinate. But what we do is, in the answer prompt, the first words are always “according to ChatGPT”. We think this is useful to do at that point.”
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What ChatGPT can do in a car is still mostly a blank canvas. Jan told me how he asked his daughter what she thought of the technology, and her response was to ask it for help with homework and, naturally, to tell her things about Taylor Swift.
Not particularly groundbreaking, you might say, but having a system ready to provide long and detailed answers to your questions, while you’re driving and can’t look at your phone, is still useful.
(Image credit: Volkswagen)
(Image credit: Volkswagen)
Wehmeyer didn’t want to give too much away, but suggested I “stay curious” and said Cerence and Volkswagen are “addressing exactly that” when I asked if the system could be used to play games on a long car drive. Again, the focus here is on keeping kids entertained rather than drivers informed, but where’s the harm in that?
Wehmeyer explained: “We’re trying to take care and to make sure the personal data of our customers is protected. The basic system is designed to protect that and that’s exactly why, after each query, it’s deleted and you cannot trace back anything. We are now evolving that, so that in the future you will have exactly that experience, so the car knows what you said and what your question was.”
I was also told how Cerence is looking to incorporate other LLMs beyond ChatGPT. “Probably we won’t rely on a single LLM like ChatGPT,” Wehmeyer said. “We could but we won’t. We could probably go then to different sources.”
(Image credit: Volkswagen)
(Image credit: Volkswagen)
Might we one day see custom GPTs from every carmaker, and is a ‘VW GPT’ on the way? “Stay curious, because we also came across that thought,” Wehmeyer said.
Will we see a GPT for every manufacturer? The potential is certainly there, if that’s something car companies and Open AI want to pursue.
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