The traffic of the world’s most popular chatbot based on artificial intelligence called ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI specialists, began to show growth in September after a decline that was recorded throughout last summer.
Third-party firms reported an improvement in the use scale of the chatbot. According to experts, the traffic dynamic recorded in early autumn indicates that the activity of using ChatGPT depends on the school calendar in the United States. The vacation period reduces the demand for a chatbot, and the beginning of the season of intensive work increases the need for the services of this configuration of artificial intelligence.
The data of the analytical company SimilarWeb indicates that the traffic to the desktop and mobile web chatbot created by OpenAI specialists, according to the results of last week, demonstrated growth exceeding by 12% the dynamics of the use of this virtual product recorded a week earlier.
YipitData, which also specializes in data analysis, reported that the activity level of those who interact with ChatGPT on a daily basis reached minimum values in early August. In the second half of last month, according to the company, the dynamics of using the chatbot began to show improvement. At the same time, the current ChatGPT traffic, which is in a symbolic sense a symptom of recovery, is still below the peak values recorded in the spring.
The media indicate that the September increase in the activity of using the chatbot developed by OpenAI, against the background of the resumption of school classes in the United States, may actualize discussions about the degree of interaction of students with this virtual product. There are concerns in the public space that ChatGPT can be used by people receiving education as a tool for generating code and summarizing notes in a matter of seconds, and for writing term papers and performing other tasks. In the context of these arguments, the question arises about how large the proportion of students in the chatbot user base is. For OpenAI, this is an urgent problem, since students are very likely not to demonstrate the level of consumer activity that guarantees a stable income.
YipitData notes that going back to school is an important factor in restoring positive traffic dynamics, but at the same time, there are other reasons for changing the negative trend. The company studied the behavior of users who belong to the category of students due to frequent visits to virtual sites related to the area of education and found that their activity increased by 21%. At the same time, consumers who are representatives of other categories increased the volume of interaction with the chatbot by 8%.
SimilarWeb assesses the effect of returning to school as a likely cause of traffic growth but does not state that this factor is the only one in the context of the impact on the scale of ChatGPT use.
The analytical company Sensor Tower reported that over the last two weeks of August, the number of people interacting with the chatbot increased by more than 10% on a weekly basis. At this time, a significant part of the residents of the United States returned to school. The company also claims that the traffic growth is due not only to this circumstance of social life but also to a jump in the markets of Brazil and India.
OpenAI did not provide comments in response to a media request about improving the dynamics of using the chatbot.
The UBS report, citing data from SimilarWeb, contains information that after the debut of ChatGPT in November last year, the consumer of this artificial intelligence model exceeded 100 million people. But after several months of impressive indicators, traffic dynamics began to move downwards. According to SimilarWeb, in the United States, ChatGPT user activity decreased by 10% in May.
To some extent, the decrease in traffic after an impressive debut is natural since in this case, it implies a popular product discussed in the international information space. The excitement caused by the public reaction has the property of disappearing after the first consumer experience, due to a greater extent to the so-called philistine interest, but not to specific practical needs. At the same time, the chatbot will not cease to be popular in the near future, since AI, as an advanced technology that changes the landscape of human life, is in a certain sense an event that changes history.
Schools reacted to students’ interaction with ChatGPT in different ways. Some educational institutions have taken drastic measures by banning the chatbot. Other schools have integrated advanced technology into the educational process. Supporters of this method of working with a chatbot perceive the development as a tool that helps in learning. Also, in this case, much depends on the position of each individual teacher and his opinion about the extent to which the presence of AI in the school environment is acceptable.
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