Global ChatGPT Usage Drops 3%, US Sees Slight Increase of 0.4%

OpenAI’s ChatGPT made a significant impact in November of the prior year, rapidly gaining immense popularity and becoming one of the fastest-growing digital entities ever. With a user base exceeding 100 million, it seemed unstoppable. However, recent data indicates that ChatGPT’s remarkable ascent may have been brief, as website visits have been consistently declining for the past three months. Nevertheless, there has been a slight uptick of 0.4 percent in website visits specifically from the United States.

What does the data say?

ChatGPT’s popularity began to wane in March as users spent less time on the site, dropping from an average of 8.7 minutes to seven minutes in August. In June and July, the number of active users of ChatGPT decreased by almost 10% each month. In August, it recorded a 3 percent drop globally. Experts have speculated that the decline may be related to the students’ summer vacation, but now that they are back, the situation seems to be improving.

According to data provided by Likeweb, college-age individuals make up a significant portion of ChatGPT’s user base, with more than a quarter of adults worldwide (27%) and 28.6% in the US. This demographic composition is in line with the theory that the summer vacation season may have contributed to the decrease in traffic as students temporarily shifted their attention away from their studies.

Education and ethical concerns

One of the significant effects of the rise of ChatGPT has been its integration into education. Teachers have expressed concern about students using AI tools like ChatGPT for academic assignments. Some schools, such as the University of Michigan Law School, have even instituted guidelines that prevent applicants from using AI in their planning processes. In addition to this, accuracy problems have also been encountered when using ChatGPT.

What is positive about ChatGPT?

Despite the decline, ChatGPT is still a huge presence in the AI chat landscape. In July, it still received more website visits worldwide than Bing, although the gap between the two platforms is narrowing. Interestingly, some AI enthusiasts may have turned to Bing Chat, which also uses OpenAI algorithms, potentially driving users away from ChatGPT.

According to a report by Intelligent.com, undergraduate and graduate students are increasingly using ChatGPT. The survey included 1,223 students and found that 30% of college students used ChatGPT for schoolwork in the 2022-2023 school year.

Artificial intelligence is a constantly evolving technology. It is quite difficult to predict what it will bring in the future. The same goes for ChatGPT. Now that all the big tech companies have emerged as strong competitors to ChatGPT, this AI tool led by Sam Altman is facing a huge challenge.