Well, here’s a surprise. Despite us being told that AI is going to take
over the world, it turns out that ChatGPT, the famed, but limited, AI language model we’ve
all been buzzing about, is suffering from a bit of a traffic jam.
According to the analysts over at Similarweb, the numbers don’t lie. This
August, ChatGPT’s website witnessed a third consecutive month of falling
monthly visitors. It seems there’s a little turbulence in the air for the
previously high flying AI. By all accounts, worldwide desktop and mobile visits
to the site took a 3.2% dip, dwindling to a mere 1.43 billion visitors in
August. Did you detect the sarcasm there?
What’s more, before they published their findings, their social followers appeared confident that June and July’s slump would continue:
Before we publish the data, what’s your prediction for ChatGPT’s August traffic?
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) September 4, 2023
That’s not all. It’s not only the number of visitors the site’s
receiving that’s taken a nose-dive, the time people are spending on the site has
also dipped. Visitors used to spend an average of 8.7 minutes on the site, that’s
now down to 7. Just imagine what they’re doing with that extra 1.7 minutes.
However, the number of unique visitors in August did grow, to 180.5
million users from 180 million. Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated,
it seems.
In any case, don’t celebrate too soon, you Luddites. The kids are back
to school in September, so we’re seeing an uptick. There’s bound to be an
increase in usage as the little darlings seek “help” with their homework and
assignments. As David F. Carr of Similarweb says, “Students seeking
homework help appears to be part of the story: the percentage of younger users
of the website dropped over the summer and is now starting to bounce
back.”
Why the dip?
Aside from the kids being off school, the famed platform is also facing competition, which might well account
for some of the drop off. The new kids in town include Google’s Bard chatbot
and Microsoft’s Bing, which has a chatbot powered by none other than OpenAI
itself, perhaps the AIs are eating themselves. In addition, ChatGPT dived into iOS
this May, with its very own app. Adding in the app might have siphoned off traffic
from its website.
In any case, OpenAI offers access to their AI models to developers and
enterprises for a fee. Plus, they’ve got a partnership with Microsoft – the developers
of Bing – that’s worth over $10 billion. So, we’re sure that the boffins behind
ChatGPT aren’t all that worried.
What is for sure is that the text/chatbot side of AI is changing, as is
how we’re using it. The debate on its impact seems never to stop. Where it, and we, will land is anyone’s guess.
Well, here’s a surprise. Despite us being told that AI is going to take
over the world, it turns out that ChatGPT, the famed, but limited, AI language model we’ve
all been buzzing about, is suffering from a bit of a traffic jam.
According to the analysts over at Similarweb, the numbers don’t lie. This
August, ChatGPT’s website witnessed a third consecutive month of falling
monthly visitors. It seems there’s a little turbulence in the air for the
previously high flying AI. By all accounts, worldwide desktop and mobile visits
to the site took a 3.2% dip, dwindling to a mere 1.43 billion visitors in
August. Did you detect the sarcasm there?
What’s more, before they published their findings, their social followers appeared confident that June and July’s slump would continue:
Before we publish the data, what’s your prediction for ChatGPT’s August traffic?
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) September 4, 2023
That’s not all. It’s not only the number of visitors the site’s
receiving that’s taken a nose-dive, the time people are spending on the site has
also dipped. Visitors used to spend an average of 8.7 minutes on the site, that’s
now down to 7. Just imagine what they’re doing with that extra 1.7 minutes.
However, the number of unique visitors in August did grow, to 180.5
million users from 180 million. Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated,
it seems.
In any case, don’t celebrate too soon, you Luddites. The kids are back
to school in September, so we’re seeing an uptick. There’s bound to be an
increase in usage as the little darlings seek “help” with their homework and
assignments. As David F. Carr of Similarweb says, “Students seeking
homework help appears to be part of the story: the percentage of younger users
of the website dropped over the summer and is now starting to bounce
back.”
Why the dip?
Aside from the kids being off school, the famed platform is also facing competition, which might well account
for some of the drop off. The new kids in town include Google’s Bard chatbot
and Microsoft’s Bing, which has a chatbot powered by none other than OpenAI
itself, perhaps the AIs are eating themselves. In addition, ChatGPT dived into iOS
this May, with its very own app. Adding in the app might have siphoned off traffic
from its website.
In any case, OpenAI offers access to their AI models to developers and
enterprises for a fee. Plus, they’ve got a partnership with Microsoft – the developers
of Bing – that’s worth over $10 billion. So, we’re sure that the boffins behind
ChatGPT aren’t all that worried.
What is for sure is that the text/chatbot side of AI is changing, as is
how we’re using it. The debate on its impact seems never to stop. Where it, and we, will land is anyone’s guess.
