Has the ChatGPT Bubble Burst?
Last year, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a revolutionary chatbot, took the tech world by storm. It quickly gained over 100 million monthly active users, becoming the fastest-growing app in history. The buzz surrounding generative A.I. prompted tech giants to adopt the technology at an accelerated pace, led CEOs to reassess their labor requirements, and even caused a surge in A.I. stocks worth billions of dollars.
However, ChatGPT seems to have hit a roadblock. Preliminary estimates from Similarweb, a web analytics firm, indicate that traffic to ChatGPT’s website declined by 9.7% in June, with an even steeper 10.3% decline in the U.S. Moreover, the number of unique visitors dropped by 5.7% compared to the previous month.
Despite the decline, ChatGPT remains the most visited site offering an A.I.-powered chatbot, surpassing even Microsoft’s Bing search engine, which recently introduced its own GPT-powered chatbot. Google’s chatbot Bard doesn’t even rank among Similarweb’s top three, trailing behind character.ai, a startup that enables users to create and develop their own chatbots. Character.AI received a $150 million investment in March, valuing the company at $1 billion, led by Andreessen Horowitz.
OpenAI, Microsoft, character.ai, and Google have yet to comment on the matter.
Interestingly, OpenAI may not be concerned about the drop in ChatGPT’s traffic, as the chatbot serves as a loss leader generating sales leads, according to David Carr, a senior insights manager at Similarweb.
OpenAI’s strategy revolves around pitching its A.I. services to businesses. Microsoft, which has invested $10 billion in the A.I. developer, is leveraging OpenAI’s services and integrating their technology into products like Office.
While corporate leaders are enthusiastic about A.I., some companies express concerns about data privacy and advise employees against sharing confidential or sensitive information through ChatGPT. OpenAI has stopped training its models on data from paying customers, as CEO Sam Altman stated in an interview with CNBC back in May.
It remains to be seen whether this dip in ChatGPT’s traffic signifies a burst bubble or simply a slight setback for the popular chatbot. OpenAI’s focus on targeting business clients with its A.I. services, along with its partnership with Microsoft, positions the company for continued growth in the A.I. industry. As the A.I. landscape evolves, privacy concerns surrounding chatbot usage may shape the future trajectory of ChatGPT and its counterparts.
