Well, here’s a surprise. Despite us being told that AI is going to takeover the world, it turns out that ChatGPT, the famed, but limited, AI language model we’veall been buzzing about, is suffering from a bit of a traffic jam.
According to the analysts over at Similarwebthe numbers don’t lie. ThisAugust, ChatGPT’s website witnessed a third consecutive month of fallingmonthly visitors. It seems there’s a little turbulence in the air for thepreviously high flying AI. By all accounts, worldwide desktop and mobile visitsto the site took a 3.2% dip, dwindling to a mere 1.43 billion visitors inAugust. 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
Numbers visiting, time spent both down
That’s not all. It’s not only the number of visitors the site’sreceiving that’s taken a nose-dive, the time people are spending on the site hasalso dipped. Visitors used to spend an average of 8.7 minutes on the site, that’snow 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 180.5million 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 backto school in September, so we’re seeing an uptick. There’s bound to be anincrease in usage as the little darlings seek “help” with their homework andassignments. As David F. Carr of Similarweb says, “Students seekinghomework help appears to be part of the story: the percentage of younger usersof the website dropped over the summer and is now starting to bounceback.”
Why the dip?
Aside from the kids being off school, the famed platform is also facing competition, which might well accountfor some of the drop off. The new kids in town include Google’s Bard chatbotand Microsoft’s Bing, which has a chatbot powered by none other than OpenAIitself, perhaps the AIs are eating themselves. In addition, ChatGPT dived into iOSthis May, with its very own app. Adding in the app might have siphoned off trafficfrom its website.
In any case, OpenAI offers access to their AI models to developers andenterprises for a fee. Plus, they’ve got a partnership with Microsoft – the developersof Bing – that’s worth over $10 billion. So, we’re sure that the boffins behindChatGPT aren’t all that worried.
What is for sure is that the text/chatbot side of AI is changing, as ishow 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 takeover the world, it turns out that ChatGPT, the famed, but limited, AI language model we’veall been buzzing about, is suffering from a bit of a traffic jam.
According to the analysts over at Similarwebthe numbers don’t lie. ThisAugust, ChatGPT’s website witnessed a third consecutive month of fallingmonthly visitors. It seems there’s a little turbulence in the air for thepreviously high flying AI. By all accounts, worldwide desktop and mobile visitsto the site took a 3.2% dip, dwindling to a mere 1.43 billion visitors inAugust. 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
Numbers visiting, time spent both down
That’s not all. It’s not only the number of visitors the site’sreceiving that’s taken a nose-dive, the time people are spending on the site hasalso dipped. Visitors used to spend an average of 8.7 minutes on the site, that’snow 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 180.5million 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 backto school in September, so we’re seeing an uptick. There’s bound to be anincrease in usage as the little darlings seek “help” with their homework andassignments. As David F. Carr of Similarweb says, “Students seekinghomework help appears to be part of the story: the percentage of younger usersof the website dropped over the summer and is now starting to bounceback.”
Why the dip?
Aside from the kids being off school, the famed platform is also facing competition, which might well accountfor some of the drop off. The new kids in town include Google’s Bard chatbotand Microsoft’s Bing, which has a chatbot powered by none other than OpenAIitself, perhaps the AIs are eating themselves. In addition, ChatGPT dived into iOSthis May, with its very own app. Adding in the app might have siphoned off trafficfrom its website.
In any case, OpenAI offers access to their AI models to developers andenterprises for a fee. Plus, they’ve got a partnership with Microsoft – the developersof Bing – that’s worth over $10 billion. So, we’re sure that the boffins behindChatGPT aren’t all that worried.
What is for sure is that the text/chatbot side of AI is changing, as ishow we’re using it. The debate on its impact seems never to stop. Where it, and we, will land is anyone’s guess.
