This week in AI: GPT-6, a cheaper Haiku and call recording rules

If you opened ChatGPT on Wednesday, it was a different model answering. On the same day, the price of one of the cheapest AI models on the market fell by up to 90%. And on Thursday, Canada's federal privacy regulator told businesses what it expects when they record a customer's voice.

None of the three asks for anything urgent. Two of them change what you pay for and what you are responsible for, so they are worth ten minutes.

ChatGPT now runs on GPT-6, and its answers can be interactive

On October 7, OpenAI started rolling out GPT-6 in ChatGPT. Paid plans (Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise) got a version called GPT-6 Sol. Free and Go users got a smaller version, Luna, from the next day. OpenAI describes both as "tuned for everyday conversation."

The visible change is what OpenAI calls Intelligent UI. According to OpenAI, as quoted by 9to5Mac, "responses can include graphics, tappable buttons, forms, charts, and interactive experiences." Ask a question that involves numbers and ChatGPT may build a small calculator or a side-by-side comparison you can adjust. The model can also start answering while it is still working through the rest.

iClarified reports two details that matter for teams. On Enterprise plans, access depends on the administrator's settings. And the release applies to the Chat tab only; it "does not change the models powering Work or Codex," OpenAI's tools for longer tasks and for writing code.

Neither report mentions a price change.

Why it matters to a small business

If you use ChatGPT for drafting, such as emails, job ads, product descriptions or replies to reviews, a new default model changes the voice of those drafts without asking you. If you have a set of instructions you paste in, or a custom setup that produces text in a certain style, the output may now read differently.

The interactive answers are the bigger shift. A calculator that ChatGPT builds on the spot looks like software, and people tend to trust software more than a paragraph. But it is still the model's work. It can pick the wrong formula, miss HST, or assume a number you never gave it. A chart that looks finished is still an AI guess.

What to do

1. Run your three most-used prompts again and compare the results with last month's. Adjust your instructions if the tone has drifted.
2. Treat any calculator, chart or comparison ChatGPT builds as a draft. Check its numbers by hand before they go into a quote, a price or a payroll decision.
3. If you manage a Business or Enterprise workspace, check what your admin settings allow before your staff find out for you.

Anthropic cut the price of its small model by up to 90%

Also on October 7, Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5, the newest version of its smallest and cheapest model. Anthropic calls it "the cheapest, fastest, and most capable small model we've ever released."

The prices are per million tokens. A token is a chunk of text, roughly part of a word, and it is how AI providers meter use when you or a vendor pay for each request through their API, the connection software uses to talk to the model.

Those prices apply to requests under 100,000 tokens. Above that, it costs $0.50 in and $2.50 out. Anthropic suggests the model for high-volume work: summaries, classification (sorting things into categories, such as support emails by topic), and live customer support. It is available through Anthropic's API and through Amazon, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

Why it matters to a small business

You probably do not buy AI by the token. But the tools you do buy, such as an AI receptionist, a review-reply service or an inbox sorter, often do, and pass the cost on in their monthly fee. When the cost of the model underneath falls by three quarters, the price of the tool on top has room to fall too. Whether it does is up to the vendor.

It also changes the arithmetic on automating small, repetitive jobs. Tagging every incoming email, summarizing every call note, or checking every order for a missing field are exactly the kind of work Anthropic aims this model at. At these prices, the running cost is less likely to be what stops you. The setup and the checking still are.

There are catches. ComputingForGeeks' testing found the new model splits text into 1.1 to 1.4 times as many tokens as the old one, so the real saving per word is smaller than the list price suggests; the author measured 86% to 89% lower input cost per character. Requests over 100,000 tokens are charged the higher rate on the whole request. And the same review cites an independent benchmark that measured a hallucination rate (how often a model states something false as fact) of 40% on a hard factual-recall test, about the same as Haiku 4.5. Cheaper does not mean more accurate.

What to do

1. If you pay for an AI tool by use, or a developer built you an automation on Anthropic's API, ask whether it can move to Haiku 5.5, and test it on your own examples before switching.
2. If a vendor's monthly fee is built on AI running costs, ask whether this price drop will show up on your invoice.
3. Keep a person checking anything that goes to a customer. A cheap model that is wrong is still wrong.

Ottawa updated its rules for recording customer calls

On October 8, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada updated its guidance for businesses that record calls with customers. The release says the update brings the guidance in line with best practice for biometric data, meaning information about a person's body or behaviour that can identify them.

The main change concerns voiceprints, which the regulator describes as "uniquely identifying voice characteristics that are considered sensitive biometric information." Some phone systems use them to recognize repeat callers or to verify identity.

The guidance itself sets out what PIPEDA, Canada's federal private-sector privacy law, expects:

• Tell callers the call is being recorded, and state the purpose "as clearly and narrowly as possible."
• Do not say a recording is for quality assurance if it will also be used for marketing, customer profiling or authentication.
• If a caller continues after being told, that is usually implied consent. For voiceprints or other sensitive information, "express consent may be required."
• If recording is not essential to the service, offer an alternative, such as continuing unrecorded, email or a visit in person.
• Customers can ask for a copy of their recording later, and you must limit how long you keep it.

The law applies "regardless of whether the customer or the organization initiated the call," and a business that hands calls to a call centre or similar service must make sure that service follows the rules too.

Why it matters to a small business

The guidance does not mention AI. But AI phone answering services, call transcription and call summaries all start by recording a caller's voice. If that service answers your phone, the recording is yours to account for, not just the vendor's.

One gap to check first is the greeting. "This call may be recorded for quality purposes" does not cover a recording that is transcribed, summarized and used to follow up with a sales email.

What to do

1. Listen to your own phone greeting. Make sure it says the call is recorded and why, in words that match what actually happens to the recording.
2. Ask your phone or AI answering provider three questions: do you create voiceprints, how long do you keep recordings and transcripts, and can a caller opt out?
3. Write down how long you keep call recordings, and delete the rest on a schedule.

What we're watching

• GPT-6 in practice. Whether its interactive answers prove reliable on everyday business arithmetic, and whether OpenAI changes prices or limits for Business plans.
• Vendor pricing. Whether AI tools built on Anthropic's models lower their prices after the Haiku 5.5 cut. ComputingForGeeks reports that Haiku 4.5 will not be retired before October 15, so vendors still on it have a little time to move.
• Voice data enforcement. Whether the Privacy Commissioner follows its guidance with complaints or investigations involving AI phone services.

Where to start

1. Re-run your most-used ChatGPT prompts this week and check any numbers it hands back.
2. List every AI tool you pay for, and ask the ones that run on usage-priced models whether this week's price drop will reach you.
3. Rewrite your phone greeting so it says plainly that calls are recorded and why, and ask your provider about voiceprints.

If you would like help with any of these, you can book a short call with Trimotech.