OpenAI has made a significant move by announcing that its ChatGPT service will now be accessible without requiring users to have an account. However, this change in accessibility is limited to ChatGPT alone; other premium products like DALL-E 3 will still necessitate an account for access, as announced by OpenAI in a recent blog post.
Since its initial launch towards the end of 2022, users interested in engaging with ChatGPT had to create an OpenAI account. Despite this requirement, the chatbot rapidly gained popularity, propelling ChatGPT to become one of the fastest-growing services.
OpenAI subsequently introduced paid subscriptions to unlock access to premium features such as DALL-E 3 and more advanced models. Functions such as saving and reviewing chat history, sharing chats, and engaging in voiced conversations also require users to have an account.
How Popular is ChatGPT?
According to OpenAI, over 100 million users from 185 countries utilize ChatGPT on a weekly basis. Traffic analytics conducted by SimilarWeb revealed that ChatGPT experienced an estimated 1.6 billion visitors in February, maintaining its position as the most visited AI chatbot website, despite emerging competition such as Google’s Gemini. However, traffic has slightly decreased from its peak in May 2023 when estimated visits surpassed 1.8 billion.
OpenAI has emphasized the implementation of “additional content safeguards” to enhance user experience, which includes broadening the scope of blocked prompts across various categories. However, the specifics of these categories were not disclosed.
Additionally, the option to opt out of model training will remain available, even for users without accounts. This feature allows ChatGPT users to control whether their activity contributes to training OpenAI’s AI models.
What About the Other OpenAI Products?
Other products under the OpenAI umbrella, such as the recently introduced AI voice cloning service, Voice Engine, and the video creation platform, Sora, continue to be accessible only to a limited number of users and partners. These products are not included in the benefits of having an OpenAI account and maintain their subscription-based access model.
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Featured Image courtesy of DADO RUVIC/REUTERS