ChatGPT Takes Over: Less Developers Visit Stack Overflow
The emergence of AI has created a buzz in the developer community. ChatGPT, an AI model that provides the assistance of debugging code and answering complex questions, has become a go-to tool for programmers seeking quick solutions. As a result, traditional developer platforms such as Stack Overflow have witnessed a significant drop in visitor numbers in recent months.
The GPT-3.5/GPT-4 language model from OpenAI powers ChatGPT. It was trained on massive web data, including online spaces such as Stack Overflow, blogs, and coding communities. More and more programmers are now consulting ChatGPT first instead of asking other developers on Stack Overflow. David Carr, Similar Web Senior Insights Manager, wrote in a blog post that "ChatGPT makes it easier for programmers to get the help they need, resulting in fewer questions asked on platforms like Stack Overflow."
The decreasing traffic on Stack Overflow is attributed to the growing popularity of ChatGPT. The forum saw a 13.9% drop in its traffic in March compared to February and a further 17.7% dip in April compared to March, according to Similar Web reports. This marked decrease coincides with the rise of ChatGPT and the growing dependency of developers on the AI model for coding assistance.
Stack Overflow is a question-and-answer site for coders and programmers. Developers can use Stack Overflow to ask and answer questions about a wide variety of programming topics. The platform also provides source code attached to the questions and answers, which developers can learn or copy from.
Stack Overflow banned the use of ChatGPT generated text because it believes "the posting of answers created by ChatGPT is substantially harmful to the site and to users who are asking and looking for correct answers."
But it's not just developer-centric platforms feeling the heat. Chegg, the online learning platform, is also experiencing a downward trend in new sign-ups as students increasingly turn to ChatGPT for academic assistance. Chegg's CEO, Dan Rosensweig, said, "ChatGPT is a major threat to Chegg's business." The company, which provides homework assistance and online tutoring, said revenue would be between $175 million and $178 million this quarter, far below FactSet's analyst consensus estimate of $193.6 million.
To improve its capacity to compete with ChatGPT and other emerging AI tools, Chegg itself has announced its own AI companion CheggMate, which is built upon OpenAI's most advanced model, GPT-4.
As AI models like ChatGPT continue to evolve and improve, the impact on traditional online forums and educational platforms is likely to grow, ushering in a new era of AI-based information-seeking and learning. Businesses affected by the negative impact of ChatGPT and other similar tools can embrace AI themselves to offset this impact, as Chegg is already doing.
