But only for three months.
Mercedes-Benz is adding ChatGPT to its MBUX Voice Assistant, further expanding the use of artificial intelligence integration and making voice control more intuitive.
In case you've been living under a rock, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot created by OpenAI. It was initially designed to mimic a human conversation but has since evolved into a potent tool that can write anything from a script for a pornographic film to a thesis on the reciprocal relationship between Gustav Klimt's art and his political affiliation with the bourgeoisie in Vienna.
The program has already launched, and over 900,000 vehicles in the USA equipped with MBUX are eligible. To download the Beta version, you get into your car and say, “Hey Mercedes, I want to join the beta program.” The Beta phase will be three months long, and Mercedes will use the data it receives to enhance the standard MBUX Voice Control further.
If you don't want it in the car, you can also download the functionality to your smartphone.
According to Mercedes-Benz, the MBUX voice assistant already sets the industry standard, but the overall system is not perfect. It makes certain vehicle functions much easier now that Merc has moved to the Hyperscreen era. Basically, it has become a lot easier to ask the car to do something than trying to find a feature hidden within a menu within another menu. Studies have also proved that touchscreens are distracting, so talking while keeping your eyes on the road makes more sense.
Up until now, you could have asked MBUX for sports and weather updates and navigation questions. It's even advanced enough to control a smart home. You could, for example, ask the car to set the temperature just so as you drive home.
Using ChatGPT's large language model, the system will be vastly improved. MBUX will have a greater understanding of natural language, and it will have the ability to expand on the responses provided.
Mercedes mentions that it can suggest a new dinner recipe, and it will understand and answer complex questions. It can even be used to conduct a conversation if you get bored on a long solitary journey. “Hey Mercedes, what is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?” If your Mercedes-AMG SL 63 says the answer is “42,” you know it's a keeper.
Naturally, adding something this advanced and controversial to a car comes with safety concerns, but Mercedes says not to worry. Mercedes has teamed up with Microsoft to enable this integration. Mercedes-Benz will retain complete control over the IT processes in the background, and all voice data collected will be stored in the Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Cloud, where it will be “anonymized and analyzed.”
Our Take
It's a brilliant idea to integrate ChatGPT into MBUX, but we also understand why Mercedes is only doing it for such a short time. The Germans want to understand the human/car interface better, so it can improve MBUX.
There are dangers, however. When people claim that ChatGPT is coming for your job, you sit up and notice. The main issue with ChatGPT is that it doesn't understand the context of a conversation. While we used a Douglas Adams reference to make fun of asking the car the ultimate question, it would be interesting to see how the car actually responds.
ChatGPT also has no bias, which is not often a good thing. It will happily write an essay on why the genocide in Rwanda was justified, and seconds later, it will write an amusing poem about a gorilla craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Basically, what we have here is the potential to turn a car into an echo chamber, much like social media. It's a one-sided relationship, where a potentially egotistical driver will use a system with no moral compass to justify everything.
Still, artificial intelligence can be helpful. We use it to create images, which can be used to enhance an article. We used ChatGPT to write a 100-word essay on what it might look like as a person, fed that into our image generator, and the results are below.
This is a fascinating topic, so please add some comments below.
Keyword: Mercedes Adds ChatGPT Functionality To MBUX Voice Assistant