ChatGPT becomes the fastest app to reach 1 billion monthly active users, just as AI sentiment worsens

Editor’s take: Much like the Call of Duty series and pornography, generative AI is one of those things that’s incredibly popular despite a lot of people claiming to dislike it. ChatGPT, for example, has just reached one billion monthly app users, just 3.5 years after it launched in November 2022.

Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower reports that ChatGPT has become the fastest app ever to reach one billion monthly app users (MAUs), beating the previous record holder, Google Maps, which took around five years after launch to hit the same number.

ChatGPT isn’t the only AI app experiencing immense popularity right now. The monthly number of Claude and Meta AI users increased by 640% and 973% year-on-year. ChatGPT was up by a mere 62%, though it remains the clear leader.

Abe Yousef, Sensor Tower’s senior insights analyst, told CNBC that model improvements and more positive market sentiment have pushed the growth of ChatGPT’s rivals.

Earlier this year, OpenAI was one of several companies to sign deals with the Pentagon. It led to a huge consumer backlash, prompting CEO Sam Altman to promise additional safeguards to prevent government use of the technology for surveillance of US citizens – while leaving several obvious loopholes in place, of course.

Sensor Tower found that ChatGPT uninstalls surged around 295% day-over-day on February 28, the day after OpenAI announced the Pentagon agreement. It also led to Anthropic’s Claude becoming the top free app on the iPhone.

Anthropic has refused to let the government use its models for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, leading to a bitter dispute and the company’s blacklisting over claims that it posed a national security risk. But it was recently reported that the NSA is using Claude Mythos for offensive cyber operations.

Paradoxically, the use of generative AI tools is growing as public opinion toward the technology worsens. In addition to the tens of thousands of job losses being caused, which some now say never really happened, the anger toward new data center builds is growing.

On that note, an OpenAI report this week claimed that Chinese ChatGPT users were trying to encourage anti-data center feelings in the US. The company admitted that their efforts had little effect – it’s not like people don’t hate the facilities already – but the report might encourage some people to soften their opposition simply because they don’t want to be thought of as “influenced” by China.