OpenAI and Anthropic both rolled out major voice updates on Thursday afternoon, but the frontier AI labs seem to be taking very different approaches. In dueling announcements, OpenAI revealed it wants ChatGPT Voice to become a hands-free way to control your computer and AI agents. Meanwhile, Anthropic announced it is focused on making Claude a better thinking partner for solving difficult problems when you want to talk to it.Taken together, the updates show how one’s voice — not their fingers — is becoming a bigger part of how people interact with AI. The updates signal that how much and what we tell our AI services is about to dramatically change.Desktop control via speech OpenAI’s update extends ChatGPT Voice beyond conversation, allowing it to orchestrate tasks through ChatGPT Work and Codex without requiring users to jump between multiple applications. Its announcement is larger in scope than Anthropic’s, and it brings GPT-Live to the ChatGPT desktop app on both macOS and Windows. Users can launch ChatGPT Voice with a keyboard shortcut or the Voice button and continue to use their desktop normally. On macOS, OpenAI is also introducing Appshots, which gives ChatGPT visibility into the active application so it can understand what the user is working on before taking action.The update also changes how voice sessions work: ChatGPT can start multiple tasks from a single conversation while earlier requests continue running in the background. That makes it possible to keep working without waiting for each task to complete before issuing the next one.GPT-Live is now rolling out to Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education users on macOS and Windows. The feature shares the same usage limits as ChatGPT Work and Codex, while ChatGPT Remote is already available on iOS. Android support is expected to follow.Reasoning through conversation Anthropic is taking a different path: Instead of turning voice into a way to control software, the company is using it to support longer, more iterative conversations around complex problems.The updated Claude Voice Mode lets users talk through an idea, ask Claude to think longer before responding, and continue refining a solution over multiple exchanges. Anthropic is using voice to make it easier to talk through code or troubleshoot without constantly switching back to the keyboard. Claude Code Voice also picked up new features. Developers can now dictate prompts, terminal commands, and code changes, either by leaving voice on or using push-to-talk.Voice beyond the chatbot OpenAI and Anthropic both expanded their voice features Thursday, but the products aren’t trying to do the same thing. OpenAI is using voice to work across apps and services, while Anthropic is building it deeper into Claude and Claude Code.Both updates move voice beyond simple conversations, giving developers another way to work with AI without reaching for the keyboard.The post OpenAI and Anthropic both speak at once with dueling voice updates appeared first on The New Stack.