A global outage of ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI, disrupted services for millions of users on Thursday. The issue, caused by a technical malfunction, resulted in users encountering “bad gateway” errors, halting workflows and operations for businesses relying on OpenAI’s API.
This marks the third major downtime for ChatGPT since December, sparking discussions about the necessity for resilient technological infrastructures to support the increasing reliance on AI-driven platforms across industries.
The outage triggered significant backlash on social media, with users sharing their frustrations over delayed logins and degraded performance. Many expressed concerns over lost data and disrupted tasks. A user on Downdetector wrote, “ChatGPT, please fix it. All our history is in your hands. We need our history back,” reflecting the platform’s role as an essential tool for personal and professional purposes.
Others likened the service to a “second brain,” highlighting its importance in managing daily tasks, research, and creative projects. The sudden unavailability of ChatGPT has reignited conversations about the risks of over-reliance on AI systems.
The outage not only affected individual users but also businesses that integrate ChatGPT through OpenAI’s API for customer support, content generation, and other operational functions. Many companies reported workflow disruptions.