The generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT, whose rising popularity suggests it may one day replace humans, has recently seen a drop in traffic. According to a report from Similarweb, AI chatbot ChatGPT’s userbase has shown a visible decline of 9.7% in worldwide traffic and 5.7% in unique visitors from May 2023 to June 2023. Additionally, in May, visitors spent 8.5% less time on the website. The downloads of the ChatGPT app, which was released on iOS in May, reached a brief peak in early June before progressively declining. It is worth noting that ChatGPT rapidly gained popularity and attracted millions of users in a very short period of time after its release.
Come to think of it, there could be several reasons for this decline in the usage of chatbots. Considering that youth are increasingly exposed to these upcoming technologies, researchers have stated that one of the major reasons for the decline could be the fact that there are fewer students looking for help with their homework since the academic year ends during this time. As students enjoy their summer break, the demand for homework assistance naturally decreases, leading to a decline in the utilisation of chatbots designed for educational purposes.
Additionally, another factor contributing to this drop in chatbot usage may be the widespread prohibition of chatbots in corporate settings. Many companies and organisations have implemented policies that restrict or even prohibit the use of chatbots in their daily operations. Moreover, some businesses prefer direct human interaction as it allows for a more personalised and empathetic approach.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described the cost of running the bot as “eye-watering”. While using ChatGPT is free, the service generates revenue primarily from users that pay a subscription price in order to access OpenAI’s most recent version of GPT-4. Similar to subscribers, non-subscribers can still use the services, but they won’t get the most recent version. This is where it gets tricky for ChatGPT: Microsoft’s AI bot, ‘Bing’ offers the latest GPT-4 version as a part of its free chat service, making it tougher for ChatGPT to score and retain subscribers.
Bing has lately seen a decline in usage too, reportedly due to its lack of accuracy in delivering optimal results. The decline in the userbase of both ChatGPT and its rival raises the question: Is the excitement surrounding generative AI chatbots diminishing? Time will only tell.