ChatGPT, Google, Meta Want to Own Your Next Trip. Here's How

24.05.2024 - 11:07 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Shane Oflaherty / Meta Ai

Generative artificial intelligence has made a big leap in the past few weeks, some of the most significant advancements since it came on the scene 18 months ago.

OpenAI, Google, and Meta each released updated AI models this spring. And they all showed how they envision their chatbots as personal assistants that can understand text, video, photos, and audio. 

Each of them used travel-related examples to show how they want users to adopt those assistants — potentially undermining travel companies releasing their own products built on top of tech from OpenAI and Google.

This topic will be part of the discussion during Skift’s inaugural Data and AI Summit on June 4 in New York City. Speakers like Shane O’Flaherty of Microsoft and trip planning startup expert Gilad Berenstein will discuss how the industry is adopting AI — and how it’s not.

Some initial testing shows that OpenAI’s latest generative AI model still produces factual errors (which it acknowledges), as is the case with every other model. 

But the point is that these companies are pushing forward, and the future high-tech digital travel concierge is a little bit closer. 

Below are detailed examples and analysis of how these AI chatbots — ChatGPT, Gemini, and Meta AI — are becoming better translators, tour guides, and trip planners.

Skift has tested some aspects, but not all of them are available yet. 

OpenAI is releasing new voice translation capabilities in the coming weeks that could unlock new destinations for international travelers.

That’s because the ChatGPT mobile app’s robotic voice — which is uncannily human-like — will act as a translator, according to demos. 

Mobile users have been able to have voice conversations with ChatGPT since 2023, but what exists today is simple compared to what OpenAI comes next.

The new voicebot will be able to understand non-verbal cues like exhalations and tone of voice, pausing to listen when interrupted, and it can recognize different voices in group conversations. 

OpenAI also says that it can change its tone (such as speaking more excitedly or sarcastically), sing, and laugh. It appears that it can also speak languages in proper accents, according to the demos, while the existing voices seem to have American accents at all times. 

This could break down language barriers that may keep travelers from visiting certain destinations.

Existing text translators, like Google Translate, are severely limited in their abilities. Clunkiness aside, they struggle to translate even between common languages, typically misunderstanding slang and idioms. For uncommon languages, they’re almost useless. 

The ChatGPT voicebot sounds human-like today but operates essentially by hearing the voice, turning it into text,