A partial ChatGPT outage prevented thousands from using the AI chatbot
Popular AI chatbot ChatGPT experienced degraded performance after a partial outage on Tuesday, as reported by parent company OpenAI and Downdetector, a website that tracks outages of major web services.
OpenAI initiated an investigation into the issues at 2:36 am on Tuesday, with problems spiking around 5:30 am, according to data from Downdetector. ChatGPT, the company's video generator Sora, and its application programming interface were among the affected services. At its peak, Downdetector received nearly 2,000 error reports on Tuesday morning.
Recovery Efforts
OpenAI stated that there is progress in the recovery of developer tools and ChatGPT. However, a full restoration of all impacted services may still require several hours. Despite operating normally at 11 am ET when queried by CNN, issues with ChatGPT were later indicated by OpenAI's website and Downdetector on Tuesday afternoon.
OpenAI acknowledged the elevated error rates and latency across ChatGPT in a post on X on Tuesday morning. The company mentioned that the root cause had been identified and that efforts were underway to resolve the issue promptly.
When asked for additional information, OpenAI directed CNN to its status page and the aforementioned X post.
Impact of the Outage
The partial outage occurred at a time when ChatGPT was increasingly prevalent in workplaces, with reports from Glassdoor indicating a doubling of ChatGPT usage within a year. According to Pew Research, 26% of US teens now utilize ChatGPT for schoolwork, a significant increase from 13% in 2023.
During the outage, some users took to social media to humorously express their struggles with basic tasks and decreased productivity. For instance, one X post humorously stated, "ChatGPT is down... Which means I actually have to type out my own emails at work. Send prayers."
Other prominent services like Zoom and X have also faced notable outages this year, underscoring the challenges in maintaining the reliability of digital platforms.
