SHAH ALAM - Uninstalls of the ChatGPT mobile app in the United States (US) surged 295 per cent on Feb 28 after news broke that OpenAI had struck a deal with the Pentagon to deploy its advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models in classified environments.
According to TechCrunch, citing data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the spike was far higher than the app’s usual uninstall rate of about nine per cent over the past 30 days.
The announcement also affected downloads.
ChatGPT downloads in the US fell 13 per cent on Saturday and another five per cent on Sunday after the deal was revealed.
Before the announcement, downloads had increased 14 per cent on Friday, the report stated.
This comes shortly after OpenAI announced that ChatGPT had reached 900 million weekly active users and 50 million paying subscribers.
Meanwhile, rival AI company Anthropic saw an increase in downloads of its app, Claude.
Sensor Tower data showed US downloads for Claude rose 37 per cent on Feb 27 and 51 per cent on Feb 28 after Anthropic reportedly rejected unconditional military use of its AI by the US government.
Anthropic said it declined the deal due to concerns about AI being used for domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
Following that, Claude became the number one free app on the US Apple App Store on Saturday evening, overtaking ChatGPT.
Data from Appfigures also showed Claude becoming the top free iPhone app in six other countries such as Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland.
Consumer sentiment was also reflected in app reviews. ChatGPT’s one-star reviews surged 775 per cent on Saturday and rose another 100 per cent on Sunday, while five-star reviews dropped by 50 per cent.