OpenAI removes registration barrier to make ChatGPT accessible to all
OpenAI has announced that its AI chatbot, ChatGPT, will now be accessible without the need for user registration. The company stated in a blog post, "We're rolling this out gradually, with the aim to make AI accessible to anyone curious about its capabilities." This change applies exclusively to ChatGPT. Other OpenAI services like DALL-E 3 will still require an account due to associated costs.
ChatGPT's journey and user requirements
ChatGPT was launched in late 2022, initially necessitating users to create an OpenAI account for usage. Its swift rise in popularity made it one of the fastest-growing services of its kind. OpenAI later introduced paid subscriptions for access to more advanced models like DALL-E 3 and GPT-4. However, certain features such as saving and reviewing chat history, sharing chats, and voice-based conversations will still require an account.
ChatGPT's popularity and user statistics
OpenAI reports that ChatGPT is used weekly by over 100 million people from 185 countries. According to SimilarWeb, a web traffic analysis tool, ChatGPT had approximately 1.6 billion visitors in February, making it the most visited AI chatbot site. However, this figure represents a slight decrease from the peak of 1.8 billion estimated visits recorded in May 2023.
OpenAI implements additional content safeguards
Alongside removing the account prerequisite for ChatGPT, OpenAI has implemented "additional content safeguards for this experience," which involve expanding the range of blocked prompts. The company did not provide specifics on these categories. Despite not requiring accounts, users still have the option to decline model training and decide if their ChatGPT activity can be used to train OpenAI's AI models.
