I’ve been on the trailing edge of AI news for various reasons. Now I have a project where I am supposed to use ChatGPT. I created an account, verified my email, and then it asked me to verify my phone number. That seems pretty greedy, datawise. Is there no way around this? 🫤

@jean google voice? You used to be able to get a number "forever" for $20.

@jean sharing an actual phone number isn't much to be worried about unless ya doing illegal shit - it's the unauthorized location sharing from random apps that don't need it; that is how they getcha - they resell that shit in the shady advertising data gray markets

@jean I bailed when they demanded my phone number. There is absolutely no legitimate reason for them to have it — they can only be requiring it in order to sell it.

@jean My manager at work is REAL BIG on ChatGPT and asked that we try it out. It's taken over 2 weeks and multiple attempts to actually get the email they're meant to send. I did eventually give in and they do not accept Google Voice numbers. They say no VOIP numbers. But I've shared a phone number with "Armando Lontauk" for years who has terrible credit and I get to fight with his creditors and debt collectors until I satisfy them that I'm not him so I assume my number is already out there in the world. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

@ayjay @jean started in yesterday to try it, and also stopped once it asked for my phone number

@jean do you have a Google Voice account? You could try using that number.

@josephaleo I don’t, but I heard they don’t work for this. I will probably have to bite the bullet and give them what they want, I’m just surprised I haven’t heard anyone kvetch about this.

@johnchandler @ayjay I’m glad to know it’s not just me who found it ridiculous.

@jean There are apps that use ChatGPT, (or so they claim), I’ve been testing one thats called Genie.

@jean I signed up with a virtual Swedish phone number via Twilio and it worked fine. Confirmed it now by creating a new, temporary account.