After a year of stagnation, OpenAI's ChatGPT is on track to set a new record for web traffic this month. In the first three weeks of May, the website for OpenAI's popular chatbot averaged about 77 million daily visits and is on track to surpass 2.3 billion total visits for the month, according to data from web analytics company Similarweb.
The previous record was 1.8 billion visits in May of 2023. Traffic to the site had plateaued until earlier this month when the numbers spiked after the company announced its latest flagship AI model and unveiled a new voice assistant. That announcement attracted attention for the high-profile feud it sparked with actress Scarlett Johansson, who essentially accused OpenAI of stealing her voice.
Even so, the company's new model led to a spike in revenue for ChatGPT, which offers users free and paid versions.
ChatGPT's launch in November of 2022 set a multibillion-dollar AI arms race in motion. Since then, OpenAI has been pushing to turn its technology into a viable business while also facing renewed competition from Google, which last week unveiled a new, more powerful version of its Gemini AI model.
At the same time Meta and European AI startup Mistral are offering open-source alternatives to GPT, rival Anthropic is pressuring OpenAI on safety, and Microsoft and Apple are pursuing smaller, cheaper AI models that could one day run on smartphones.
OpenAI will need to generate more than the $2 billion in annual revenue it currently brings in if it wants to justify its $80 billion valuation.
OpenAI's recent product news was partially overshadowed by a series of high-profile departures from the company, including co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who led the effort to oust CEO Sam Altman last year, and former head of the "superalignment" team Jan Leike.
