ChatGPT drew billions of visits, prompted government AI action in first year  

OpenAI’s ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) tool skyrocketed in success in the year since it was released to the public. Its explosive success kicked off a race among tech companies to stay on the cutting edge and left lawmakers and regulators scrambling to regulate the quickly evolving industry.  

ChatGPT launched to the public at the end of last November and reached 15.5 million visits in its first week, according to data compiled by Similarweb. Visits to ChatGPT more than tripled to 58 million visits in its second week of public access, according to the data.

In the months since, ChatGPT has been incorporated into Microsoft products, Google and other tech companies launched rival products, and the chatbots’ popularity garnered attention — and scrutiny — from Congress.  

As ChatGPT nears its first anniversary, though, OpenAI had a hectic week. The company’s board ousted CEO Sam Altman and then rehired him days later after pressure from hundreds of employees.  

ChatGPT hit peak of 1.8 billion visits  

ChatGPT saw a steep incline in visits from its launch until a peak in May, when it drew 1.8 billion visits, according to Similarweb data.  

In June, traffic to ChatGPT fell for the first time since its launch, down to 1.6 billion from its May peak. David Carr, senior insights manager for Similarweb, said in the company’s report the dip may be attributable to school breaks because students may have not been using the tool for assignments. Concerns around how students were using ChatGPT, possibly to cheat on assignments, emerged as an early worry about how AI would impact different sectors and jobs.  

Visits to ChatGPT dipped down to 1.4 billion in August, but by October, traffic was back up to 1.7 billion visits, based on Similarweb’s data.  

The traffic drawn by ChatGPT pushed OpenAI’s website to be among the most visited websites worldwide. In April, the OpenAI website had more visits than the domains of LinkedIn, Reddit, and Netflix, but those websites edged out OpenAI again over the summer, according to Similarweb. 

Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute in the Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy said the introduction of the first “consumer facing, user friendly generative AI app” was a significant shift in generative AI. 

“This was something that normal people could use, but also then this percolated so quickly into businesses and now has transformed how so many different industries do business,” Kreps said.  

Rival products launched  

As ChatGPT garnered mass attention and widespread use in February, Google unveiled Bard, its rival chatbot. Google’s Bard is powered by Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications, or LaMDA.  

Just one day after Google announced Bard and plans to incorporate it into search functions, Microsoft announced its plans to incorporate ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. Microsoft invested billions of dollars into OpenAI.   

The dual announcements kicked off a race between the two companies, and others to follow, to stay ahead of the curve on AI.  

In March, Open AI launched a more advanced version of its AI tool, GPT-4, which Microsoft used to power AI in Bing search. Among other advances, the updated version of the AI was able to accept visual inputs, meaning users can ask questions based on queries that use images.  

ChatGPT has maintained a significant traffic lead over Bard. In the past three months, Google’s Bard had 266.1 million visits, compared to ChatGPT’s 1.7 billion, according to Similarweb data.  

Other tech companies also jumped into the AI race amid ChatGPT’s growth.  

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced in July its open-sourced large language model, Llama 2, would be released for commercial use and research.  

Elon Musk’s xAI company announced a ChatGPT rival with a “rebellious streak” earlier this month.  

Congressional scrutiny of AI 

As ChatGPT became more popular and its rivals hit the scene, the federal government began to consider guardrails to mitigate potential risks, such as the spread of disinformation and job losses. In May testimony to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, Altman warned that his “worst fears” are that the technology industry “cause significant harm to the world.”  

“I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong, and we want to be vocal about that. We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening,” he added. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has also convened a series of AI insight forums that bring together leaders from civil society groups and tech companies to discuss the benefits and risks of AI. Altman, along with the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, Meta and other tech companies, were among attendees at the first closed-door forum in September.  

As Congress weighs regulation, the White House released a sweeping executive order on AI in October. The order includes new safety standards, and requires companies developing models that pose serious risks, whether to national security, economic security or public health, to notify the government about training the models.  

It also directs federal agencies to accelerate the development of techniques so AI can be trained while preserving the privacy of the training data.  

Turmoil at OpenAI 

OpenAI made a surprise announcement Friday afternoon that Altman was ousted as CEO after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications with the board.”  

OpenAI president and board chair Greg Brockman quit in response to the news, and hundreds of employees later reportedly threatened to leave if Altman was not brought back.  

OpenAI named two interim CEOs OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati at first, and then former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear — before ultimately announcing Tuesday that Altman would come back along with a mostly new board.  

In the days between Altman’s firing and the deal to bring him back, Microsoft hired Altman and Brockman to lead a generative AI team at the tech giant.  

Despite the turbulent few days, the AI company and Microsoft will continue their partnership amid the changes.  

“We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board. We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Tuesday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

“Sam, Greg, and I have talked and agreed they have a key role to play along with the OAI leadership team in ensuring OAI continues to thrive and build on its mission. We look forward to building on our strong partnership and delivering the value of this next generation of AI to our customers and partners,” he added.  

Altman also said in a post on X that he is looking forward to returning to OpenAI and “building on our strong partnership with [Microsoft].”