ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, experienced a major outage on June 4, 2024. The disruption affected users worldwide, leaving them unable to access the service for several hours.
Awhile ago, Sam Altman gave his custom instructions he uses for ChatGPT… and I think they may actually be a bad example.
AI only “thinks” by writing. Telling it to only give you short or direct answers may actually lower accuracy by short circuiting chain-of-thought in the LLM. pic.twitter.com/6XGqLXVneE
— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) June 3, 2024
The first signs of trouble emerged around 2:30 a.m. ET, with reports of users encountering “internal server errors” and “bad gateway” responses when trying to use ChatGPT on web browsers and the mobile app.
OpenAI acknowledged the issue and attempted a fix by 7:30 a.m. ET, briefly restoring services. However, the fix was short-lived, and users soon faced persistent problems. As OpenAI worked to identify and resolve the underlying cause, the outage extended over several hours.
"Millions forced to use brain as OpenAI's ChatGPT takes morning off"https://t.co/oxByGL0i1z
— Florian Gallwitz (@FlorianGallwitz) June 4, 2024
The company provided updates on its status page, confirming ongoing efforts to mitigate the issues.
🤖ChatGPT is currently down globally, OpenAI is working on a fix! 💪#ChatGPT #OpenAIhttps://t.co/bkLaVry2p8
— Zee Business (@ZeeBusiness) June 4, 2024
ChatGPT outage affected global users
By the afternoon, around 5:01 p.m. BST, OpenAI announced that a fix had been implemented and that they were monitoring the results.
Users began reporting restored access, although the exact cause of the outage remained undisclosed.
ChatGPT is not responding, neither on computer nor on the phone. pic.twitter.com/uYddIkANwK
— Mushtaq Bilal, PhD (@MushtaqBilalPhD) June 4, 2024
The outage had a significant impact on ChatGPT’s millions of users who rely on the AI for various tasks, including coding, brainstorming, and report writing. Some users explored alternative AI chatbots during the downtime, such as Microsoft Copilot, Google’s Chatbot, and Anthropic’s Claude.
OpenAI successfully restored ChatGPT’s functionality by the end of the day, but questions about the causes of the outage lingered. The incident highlighted the growing dependency on AI tools and the importance of having reliable alternatives available. As ChatGPT resumes normal operations, users hope for a more stable service and transparent communication from OpenAI in the future.
The outage serves as a reminder of the need for robust solutions and contingencies for those who heavily rely on AI-driven productivity tools.
