OpenAI has upgraded the model behind ChatGPT voice mode to GPT-Live, which natively delegates complex, deep-reasoning, and search-heavy tasks to the new GPT-5.5 frontier model asynchronously in the background while maintaining an active, uninterrupted voice conversation with the user. For production engineers building voice agents, this architecture solves the critical latency-vs-capability trade-off, enabling you to build highly responsive, low-latency voice interfaces that can still execute high-compute reasoning tasks without freezing the user experience. You must now design your agentic guardrails to handle asynchronous background execution steps that return complex context mid-conversation while managing new, unpredictable vocal expressions like interrupting or emotive feedback.