San Francisco, Mar 14 (IANS): Automaker General Motors (GM) is reportedly working on a virtual personal assistant based on the same machine learning models that power ChatGPT.

According to Semafor, citing sources, the voice-activated chatbot will be powered by Microsoft's Azure cloud service, which owns the OpenAI tech that powers ChatGPT.

In addition, Scott Miller, GM's vice president of software-defined vehicle and operating system, confirmed that the company is developing an artificial intelligence assistant in order to go beyond current voice commands.

For instance, if a driver gets a flat tyre, they can ask the car to show them how to change it, which may result in the car playing an instructional video on an internal display.

Moreover, the report mentioned that the version of AI assistant in GM cars will behave differently than ChatGPT or Bing Chat because the automaker is working on adding another, more car-specific layer on top of the OpenAI models known for answering any question, often with unpredictable results.

Meanwhile, General Motors has laid off hundreds of workers from the company as it follows other major companies, including competitors, in downsizing headcounts to preserve cash and boost profits.

Announced internally, the cuts affected about 500 positions across the company's various functions, reports CNBC, citing sources.