Users posted memes, with many calling ChatGPT as “our emotional AI support”
Hyderabad: ChatGPT experienced a global outage on Tuesday, with many users unable to generate any responses from the Large Language Model (LLM) on which they had begun to depend for a variety of tasks. While social media sites going down would cut off people from the world, the going down of this AI platform interfered with their work and study.
Affected users took to posting messages laced with humour, showing how much the service had become integrated with their lives in a short time.
User reports of problems surged across multiple regions of the world. The issue began at around 12 noon IST on Tuesday, with problems peaking around 3.15 pm IST, according to the DownDetector, a website that tracks status around the world from time to time.
Around 88 per cent of the users have reportedly shared issues with the web app, and 10 per cent reported problems with the mobile app. DownDetector recorded a sharp spike in complaints, with over 900 reports in India alone by 07 pm.
DownDetector showed that users not only had problems in generating responses, but also had problems related to the chatbot on the website and app, along with login issues.
Open AI acknowledged the issues. It said that there is a partial outage on its servers, and is investigating the cause. The company said that the problems began at 12.06 pm IST on Tuesday, and several components including ChatGPT, its video-generating service Sora and its APIs are affected by the outage.
“Some users are experiencing elevated error rates and latency across listed services. We are investigating", OpenAI stated.
While some people are facing "error in message stream" error code while generating, some users are able to use the LLM normally.
Numerous users posted memes, with many calling ChatGPT as “our emotional AI support”. Social media is flooded with jokes and memes about the outrage, with users humorously highlighting their reliance on AI.
“ChatGPT is down? Guess I’ll start talking to real people again” said a 17-year-old college student from Ameerpet. “Am I supposed to use my brain now at work?” added his friend.
“Did ChaiGPT go on a vacation? How will I answer if someone asks my name? We overused ChatGPT and made it sick!” said a student from Nizam College.
As of 8 pm, DownDetector displayed that more than 300 users in India are still facing problems using ChatGPT.
Businesses using the chatbot for customer interactions are facing delays, while individuals seeking quick responses or creative assistance are needing alternative sources like Microsoft’s Copilot, Anthropic’s Claude, AI-powered tools etc.
The users encountering ChatGPT downtime are widely checking the official Open AI status pages and community forums for updates on restoration efforts. “AI powered tools play an integral role in modern digital interactions, making their availability crucial for seamless operations” said a marketing executive from Miyapur.
