In the world of technology, where thumbs do the talking and time is money, outages are a rare occurrence. Most businesses today use the internet to search for things that can communicate with customers, so a blackout on any mega app can cost businesses millions of dollars.
Today outages are now a regular occurrence on the internet. For the longest time, Meta was seen as the only billion-dollar company with too many reported outages. However, the flagship product of OpenAI has now made it to the list. Since its inception, users have reported multiple issues with ChatGPT including outages, busy servers, gibberish replies, etc.
As per the recent news, ChatGPT experienced a sudden technical outage on July 4th, 2024 and paid subscribers are not happy. As a user, I rely on ChatGPT for my marketing processes, so when ChatGPT went black on me, I thought it was an internet outage issue. But after calling my ISP at the Xfinity phone number and reporting the incident, I realized that it wasn’t the internet, rather the popular AI tool was unavailable.
How People Are Reacting To It
During the outage, most people shared their concerns about frequent outages on social media platforms, especially X (formerly known as Twitter). While most of them were posting funny comments, memes, and videos tagging ChatGPT, the official account remained silent on the issue.
One of the X users commented on the situation in a funny tweet stating, “Looks like even #AI needs to take a mental health break. #ChatGPTdown #AIburnout”.
Another user posted, “Everyone is coming to X just to confirm”.
Although the outage issue is quite common and has happened multiple times now, this is the first time ChatGPT has not addressed the issue. During the last outage, the company openly commented on the issue, cause and kept users updated via X.
While the issue was not addressed publicly, the company still opted to publish an in-app disclaimer for struggling users. As per the disclaimer, the investigation of the issue started at 00:21 PDT. Later at 01:32 PDT, the company updated the status to “issue identified and working on mitigation”. At 02:00 PDT, the company updated that the team was still working on the issue.
Issue Resolved
At 04:48 PDT, OpenAI reported that the issue was resolved and everything was back to normal. Even after that, the company did not mention the cause. According to ChatGPT, the outage was caused by a DDoS attack.
As per online sources, the total span of outage was around 2 hrs. and 45 minutes. However, the reported time is not confirmed because some sources have also mentioned that the total blackout time was around 4 hrs.
What Outage Means For the OpenAI
For free users, the outage might not be such a huge deal. However, for paid users and OpenAI, the situation is quite alarming. Business experts claimed that this could put an end to OpenAI dominance because Gemini is catching up already.
With such fierce competitors in the market and the company trying to convert all the free users to paid ones, the frequent outages are quite damaging. Investors also reported that with the current outage streak, OpenAI could become the next Meta.
This means that while the company holds a first movers advantage, it will disappoint the user expectations in the future. This is not just limited to complete outages, instead, the app is also notorious for producing incomplete and gibberish replies.
Just a few weeks ago, users reported that ChatGPT was replying in gibberish. Moreover, users have reported feature-based outages when the app stopped producing pictures or audio notes.
What to Do On the Next ChatGPT Outage?
There is no doubt that OpenAI will try to avoid any possible outage issue in the future, however, considering the questionable outage track record, nothing can be said for certain. In case, it happens in the future, here are some of the ChatGPT alternatives to ensure that your work stays unaffected.
Gemini
Gemini is one of the best possible alternatives in the market right now if you are seeking a free chatbot tool. It has all the features that you can expect. Some experts believe that in certain responses, Gemini outshines ChatGPT as well.
Claude 3
Another very good alternative to ChatGPT that you should try is Claude 3. The free version of Claude 3 is equivalent to ChatGPT 3.5 and Gemini Pro. However, if you choose to upgrade you will get something as good as the ChatGPT 4 and Gemini Ultra.
Microsoft Co-Pilot
This is one of the most talked about free ChatGPT alternatives available in the market. The tool has multiple alternatives and offers some impressive features like a custom chatbot, image generation, and Microsoft 365 access as well.
Currently, ChatGPT has more than 100 million users. Considering such a high number of active users’ the outage seems understandable. However, the company holds a good reputation and a solid paid clientele, so these outages can tarnish its reputation.
