ChatGPT users reported widespread disruptions on Thursday as thousands faced issues in accessing the popular AI chatbot.
The users started reporting issues in accessing the ChatGPT service at around 4:50 pm, according to the downdetector.
A big spike was seen on the outage monitoring website, with over 3700 users in India reporting glitches as of 5:18 pm.
“ChatGPT seems to be down at the moment,” a user wrote on X, sharing an screenshot of downdetector. “Bad gateway – The web server reported a bad gateway error.”
OpenAI’s website acknowledged facing an issue at around 5:30pm. “We are currently experiencing elevated error rates in the API. We are currently investigating,” it said.
The reason for the outage is currently unknown.
The global outage comes just a day after an ambitious $500 billion Stargate project, a joint venture by ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, was announced at the White House.
“This is big money and high-quality people,” US President Donald Trump said, flanked by Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
OpenAI described Stargate as a game-changer for American AI leadership. “This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and generate massive economic benefit globally,” the company said in a statement.
However, not everyone is convinced of Stargate’s promise. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who played a key role in Trump’s reelection campaign and now advises the president on cost-cutting measures, was quick to cast doubt on the project’s financial viability.
“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk wrote on X. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
Altman responded Wednesday to say Musk was “wrong, as you surely know” and inviting Musk to come visit the first site in Texas that is already under construction.
“(T)his is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put (America) first,” Altman wrote, using a US flag emoji to represent America.
This is a developing story…please check back for updates
