OpenAI’s ChatGPT service experienced a worldwide outage on Tuesday, causing users to encounter error messages when attempting to access the platform. Many users reported seeing error messages and were unable to get responses to their inquiries.
The AI assistant is designed to facilitate human-like dialogue and produce coherent text on request, drawing from an extensive database of digital literature, online content, and various online media.
Since its launch in November 2022, it has quickly become a global tool utilised by approximately 500 million users.
Just before 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, OpenAI posted on its website: “Some users are encountering increased error rates and delays with our services. We are actively investigating the situation.”
Two hours later, they announced that the “root cause” had been found and they were “working to implement a solution.” Around 4 PM, the company stated: “Complete restoration of all affected services may require a few more hours.”
Several users posted screenshots from the app showing the chatbot responding with: “Hmmm… something seems to have gone wrong.”
Others received an error notification that read: “A network error occurred. Please verify your connection and try again. If the issue continues, please reach out to us via our help centre at help.openai.com.”
Some users have also expressed frustration with the app’s longer response time to inquiries. It seems that the issue first began to be investigated at 7:36 AM on Tuesday.
OpenAI is valued at $300 billion, positioning it as one of the most valuable private enterprises globally. In February, the firm announced it had over 400 million active users weekly, including 10 million subscribers for Chat GPT Plus.
Recently, the organisation introduced a new AI image generation tool called GPT-4o, accessible to free app users.
The increasing popularity of AI has become a frequent topic in news discussions in recent years. Critics argue it could replace jobs and exploit human creativity, while technology advocates assert that it can streamline tedious tasks and allow workers to save time.
