ChatGPT, which was the fastest-adopted internet app when it launched last year, last month saw traffic fall for the first time.
Worldwide traffic to the generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot platform, which is hosted by owner OpenAI, dropped 9.7% in June, according to data from Similarweb, while unique visitor numbers fell 5.7%.
The amount of time users spent on the site also continued to decline, with an 8.5% fall in May and the precise figure for June still unconfirmed.
Open AI opened up the generative AI for free public testing on November 30 last year and it reached 100mln monthly active users by January, faster than TikTok, Instagram and any other consumer app.
Similarweb said the online version of ChatGPT is no longer on course to become the most-visited website in the world, which would have meant overtaking Google.
But the decline in user numbers is unlikely to be a problem for OpenAI and its backers, which include Microsoft, as OpenAI makes the technology available for other companies to embed in their applications, which includes the likes of Duolingo, Coca Cola, Slack, Octopus Energy and Chegg.
The ChatGPT site still gets more worldwide visitors via desktop and mobile browsers than bing.com, Microsoft’s search engine, or Character.AI, the second most popular stand-alone AI chatbot site.
Character.AI, which was founded by ex-Google engineers that has chatbots take on the personalities of celebrities, historical figures and fictional characters, also saw its traffic volume fall in June, dropping 32% month-on-month.
Google, which was felt to have been outflanked by OpenAI and Microsoft with the successful of the launch, recently said its DeepMind arm is working on an AI system, called Gemini, that it expects to outshine ChatGPT due to its novel capabilities and help respond to the competitive threat.
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