OpenAI eyes 700 million users this week as ChatGPT growth surges

OpenAI is on the brink of a remarkable achievement, as ChatGPT is projected to reach 700 million weekly active users this week. This milestone marks a fourfold increase compared to the same period last year, highlighting significant growth from the 500 million users recorded at the end of March. Nick Turley, the Vice President of Product for ChatGPT, expressed gratitude towards the team in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stating, "Every day, people and teams are learning, creating, and solving harder problems. Big week ahead. Grateful to the team for making ChatGPT more useful and delivering on our mission so everyone can benefit from AI." The figure of 700 million encompasses all users, including those on free, Plus, Pro, Enterprise, and Edu plans. According to a CNBC report, OpenAI's growth rate has also accelerated, now standing at a remarkable 2.5 times year-over-year increase. The surge in users can be attributed to the introduction of a new native image generation feature in GPT-4 earlier this year, which quickly gained popularity among users who experimented with various creative outputs. Adding to the excitement, OpenAI is rumored to be preparing for the launch of its highly anticipated GPT-5 model this week. This new iteration has been the subject of much speculation on social media, fueled further by CEO Sam Altman’s teasers. In a recent post on X, Altman shared that he asked GPT-5 to recommend a show about artificial intelligence, and it suggested the series "Pantheon" among other options. In a podcast last month, Altman admitted to feeling overshadowed by the capabilities of the new AI model. He recounted an experience where he posed a challenging question to GPT-5, which provided an accurate answer that left him astounded. "I felt like useless relative to the AI in this thing that I felt like I should have been able to do and I couldn't," Altman reflected. As OpenAI continues to innovate in the field of artificial intelligence, the anticipation surrounding the upcoming launch underscores the transformative impact of its technologies on users worldwide.