AI fatigue? Big setback for ChatGPT as traffic DROPS for the first time ever

For the first time since its launch in November 2022, the website traffic of ChatGPT has seen a decline that is almost 10%.

OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT has witnessed a dip in its website traffic for the first time since it was released to the public. (AFP)

Is the world finally getting tired of artificial intelligence? While businesses show no signs of slowing down with new AI products hitting the market every week, it appears that people are getting over the biggest tech trend of 2023. The biggest highlight for AI fatigue was seen when ChatGPT, the popular generative AI platform of OpenAI, witnessed a dip in website traffic for the first time since its inception.

According to a report by Similarweb, the worldwide traffic for ChatGPT fell by 9.7 percent between the month of May to June. Unique visitors in the month of June also fell by 5.7 percent. The scenario was worse still within the US where the decline month-over-month was 10.3 percent. “The amount of time visitors spent on the website was also down 8.5%,” added the report.

ChatGPT website traffic drops

A closer look at the data shows that ever since its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT had steady growth, with the most traffic-heavy month being February to March when the monthly traffic climbed from 10 billion to 15 billion. The months of April and May witnessed a gradual slowdown in growth, although the platform was still consistently gaining more unique visitors.

While early estimations said ChatGPT was primed to break into the 20 billion monthly traffic mark, it now appears to be a distant dream.

The time spent on the website also saw a similar curve, with six minutes being the average time when it launched and it peaks at more than 8 minutes in the month of March. Currently, it is sitting at just under 8 minutes.

The drop in traffic has not only affected ChatGPT but also Character.ai, the second-largest AI platform in the world. After reaching a peak in the month of May, Character.AI also saw a dip in the month between May to June. But interestingly, Character.AI beats ChatGPT massively when it comes to engagement as the website clocks time per visit at 25.4 minutes as opposed to 8.5 for the latter.

These data points paint a concerning image for businesses that are obsessed with AI and are building newer user-focused tools, without considering the possibility that the world just might have started to move on.