OpenAI, the organization behind the AI chatbot ChatGPT, has announced a temporary pause on new sign-ups for the premium version, ChatGPT Plus. According to CEO Sam Altman, the platform has experienced a surge in usage after OpenAI's DevDay, leading to capacity-related challenges that affect the quality of the(DAVID ATTLEE, COINTELEGRAPH, 2023) user experience. While new registrations are temporarily suspended, existing users can choose to be notified when subscriptions reopen. The decision to pause sign-ups follows a week of service disruptions and outages, including distributed denial-of-service attacks.
OpenAI, the organization behind the widely-used AI chatbot ChatGPT, has announced a temporary suspension of new sign-ups for the premium version, ChatGPT Plus. The decision comes in response to a significant surge in usage after OpenAI's recent DevDay, leading to capacity-related challenges and impacting the quality of the user experience.
CEO Sam Altman communicated the decision via a post on the social platform X (formerly Twitter) on November 15. Altman acknowledged the platform's current capacity constraints and highlighted the temporary pause in new registrations. He mentioned that the surge in usage occurred following OpenAI's DevDay, where the company introduced new application programming interfaces (APIs) approximately a week ago.
Despite the temporary halt in new sign-ups, existing users can still opt to be notified when subscriptions reopen. This strategic move aims to address the challenges arising from the platform's recent high-demand scenarios and distributed denial-of-service attacks, which led to service disruptions and outages.
The temporary suspension of new ChatGPT sign-ups is expected to mitigate the strain on the platform's capacity, ultimately enhancing the experience for existing users. It allows OpenAI to manage the increased demand effectively and maintain the stability and reliability of the service.
ChatGPT, known for its conversational abilities, has garnered widespread popularity with over 180 million users, according to SimilarWeb data cited by Reuters. However, the platform faces growing competition from other AI chatbots, including Google's Bard and Anthropic's Claude 2. Elon Musk also recently announced the creation of his AI chat program, "Grok."
OpenAI's recent initiatives extend beyond ChatGPT, including collaborations such as the partnership with startup Humane to launch a physical AI device named Ai Pin. This wearable AI virtual assistant represents OpenAI's exploration of new avenues in the AI and technology landscape.
(AMAKA NWAOKOCHA, COINTELEGRAPH, 2023)