Following its rise earlier this year, the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT has faced a decline in interest as problems continue to mount.
An analysis from Similarweb found that August marked the third consecutive month that visitors to ChatGPT dropped after a rapid rise. June and July saw the worst drops, losing 10% of visitors each month, but somewhat stabilized in August. The time engaged with the bot also declined, going from an average of 8.7 minutes in March to 7 minutes in August. While April saw the number of users rapidly approaching 2 billion, it has since fallen below 1.5 billion.
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Explanations for the apparent decline in the app are students going off to summer break, declining performance, and increased competition.
“One theory about why ChatGPT’s web traffic dropped over the summer is that school was out, which would help explain why the traffic trend stabilized in August as schoolchildren in the US were back in class in greater numbers toward the end of the month,” David F. Carr, a senior insights manager at Similarweb, wrote in the August report.
Speaking with Reuters, he expressed some optimism that September could see a partial recovery in users as students go back to school.
The other primary issue that might throw a wrench in Carr’s optimistic theory is the declining abilities of ChatGPT. While originally renowned for its accuracy, the chatbot has declined drastically in accuracy and usefulness.
A research paper published by Stanford University and UC Berkeley found that the latest ChatGPT model had declined significantly in several fields, particularly with math-related questions. The bot was tested in March, then three months later in June. In one example, it had a 2.4% accuracy in identifying prime numbers in June, compared to 97.6% in March.
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Another possible reason for ChatGPT’s loss of users is increased competition. ChatGPT was released with a near monopoly in its field, but other artificial intelligence chatbots have since attempted to catch up. Similarweb noted nine other large chatbots of respectable size.
Despite the loss in users, ChatGPT remains one of the most-visited websites on Earth. While shedding some viewers over the past few months, it still retains a massive user base, including many younger users who frequently use it to assist with school work.
