The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT marked a turning point for the AI industry. The chatbot, which became the fastest-growing app in history with 100 million users in just two months, turned artificial intelligence into one of the biggest stories in 2023. It also drew a lot of attention from VC investors who injected billions of dollars into its owner, OpenAI. However, the enormous public interest and influx of venture capital didn’t translate into actual usage.
According to data presented by AltIndex.com, ChatGPT is still far from widespread usage, with less than 10% of people who use it daily.
44% of Gen Z-ers and 58% of Millennials Have Never Used ChatGPT
Last year, ChatGPT was the most popular Wikipedia article with almost 50 million visits, more than the world’s highest-paid athlete, Cristiano Ronaldo, or the blockbuster movies Oppenheimer and Barbie. This gives a pretty good picture of what interested society and what knowledge people were seeking. However, the chatbot`s usage does not align with its immense popularity.
According to YouGov’s survey conducted for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in six countries between March and April 2024, only one in ten people use ChatGPT daily. Even respondents in the youngest age group, aged 18 to 24, said they were not using OpenAI’s chatbot regularly. Most of them, or 18%, use it on a weekly basis. Monthly users comprise 12% of all respondents in this age group; 17% said they have used it only once or twice, while 9% claim they use it daily. This means 44% of Gen Z-ers have not used ChatGPT even once.
The difference between causal, heavy and no usage is even more significant in older age groups. For instance, only 6% of Millennials claim to use ChartGPT daily, opposite to 15% who have used it only once or twice, and 58% who have never used it. Heavy usage, as in at least weekly consultation of ChatGPT, drops to only 3% in the oldest age group of 55+ year-olds, while 87% of respondents in this group have not used ChatGPT even once.
ChatGPT Turned OpenAI into the Most-Funded AI Company, Despite the Lack of Widespread Usage
Although ChatGPT is still far from widespread usage, its owner, OpenAI, has greatly benefited from its popularity. According to CB Insight’s analysis, OpenAI is the most funded AI startup in the world, and most of the VC capital was injected into the company after the release of its flagship product.
So far, OpenAI raised over $14 billion in capital through partnerships with Microsoft and other investments. Moreover, statistics show that ChatGPT owner alone raised more money than the next seven AI companies on CB Insight`s list, including Anthropic, Databricks, and Shield AI.
With $14 billion of fresh capital poured into its business, OpenAI has climbed to the top of the global unicorn club. Valued at $80 billion, the ChatGPT maker is now the world’s third most valuable unicorn company behind ByteDance and SpaceX and ahead of Chinese ecommerce giant SHEIN or the US payments provider Stripe.