Fri Dec 27 09:15:49 UTC 2024: ## ChatGPT Suffers Major Outage, Second This Month
**New York, NY –** Popular AI chatbot ChatGPT experienced a significant outage on Thursday afternoon, impacting tens of thousands of users. Reports of the disruption began flooding in around 1:30 p.m. EST, with over 50,000 outages reported on Downdetector.com. The service remained down for several hours, with OpenAI acknowledging the issue and attributing it to problems with an unnamed internet service provider.
The outage, which caused an “Internal Server Error” message for users, marks the second major disruption this month for the wildly popular chatbot. A similar, six-hour outage occurred just two weeks prior. This latest incident comes as OpenAI recently secured a massive $6.6 billion funding round, valuing the company at $157 billion.
While OpenAI stated they were working to resolve the issue, users took to social media, including X (formerly Twitter), to express their frustration and make light of the situation. Some joked about having to rely on their own cognitive abilities once more. OpenAI typically resolves outages within a few hours, suggesting a return to service could occur before the end of the day.
ChatGPT, boasting over 300 million weekly users and one billion daily messages, has become a dominant player in the AI chatbot market. While the free version is widely used, premium tiers are available for users seeking enhanced functionality. This latest outage further highlights the challenges of maintaining a high-demand service, particularly one as influential as ChatGPT.
First Piper 