It will be challenging to recover from this PR setback.
Many once-loyal customers swore to stop using ChatGPT when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed a new agreement with the Department of Defense last week.
Furthermore, according to fresh data published by TechCrunch, those irate individuals weren’t just making baseless threats. According to market research firm Sensor Tower, uninstalls of the ChatGPT mobile app increased by 295% on Saturday compared to the previous day. That’s an enormous increase above the AI chatbot’s average daily uninstall rate of 9% over the previous 30 days, as TC pointed out.
Many of them appear to be switching over to Anthropic’s Claude. Unlike OpenAI, Anthropic has declined to reach an agreement with a very unpopular government to grant the military unlimited access to its AI technology. Anthropic specifically insisted that its AI not be utilized in widespread surveillance of US individuals or in autonomous weapons systems.
Even if this was purely Anthropic’s posturing — rumors say that the US military employed Claude to help identify targets for the devastating missile attacks in Iran that killed the country’s leader Ali Khamenei and hundreds of civilians – consumers were definitely affected. On Friday, the day after Anthropic announced that it would not reach a contract with the Pentagon, Claude installs increased by 37% day over day, and by 51% on Saturday.
OpenAI’s Pentagon arrangement seemed to have scared away potential new users in addition to alienating current ones. On Saturday, its daily download increase decreased by 14%, and the next day, it decreased by an additional 5%. ChatGPT had experienced a 13% increase in growth the day prior to the scandal.
In AI circles, outrage over OpenAI’s choice is unavoidable. Just a few days ago, one of the most popular posts ever published in the r/ChatGPT subreddit asks members to provide evidence that they have cancelled their ChatGPT subscriptions. It said, “You are training a war machine.” Tips for transferring your ChatGPT conversation history to Claude are being shared everywhere. When Altman attempted to contain the damage with an AMA on X, he was inundated with more irate users and, worse, sharp questions for which he lacked a credible response.
Over the weekend, Claude shot to the top of the US App Store, overtaking ChatGPT, which is currently ranked second. Claude’s US downloads overtook ChatGPT’s for the first time in the app’s history, according to data. Although it’s unclear how the backlash will ultimately impact OpenAI or the larger AI race, public opinion has obviously shifted against the business for the time being.
