While the popularity of ChatGPT led to many businesses implementing generative artificial intelligence (AI) into their work resources, relatively few people have actually tried ChatGPT for themselves.
Key Details
- ChatGPT went viral shortly after its launch in November 2022. Despite its immediate popularity and the ongoing popularity of AI, more people have heard of the chatbot than have actually used it.
- Nearly 60% of adults have heard about ChatGPT since its launch, but few have attempted to use it, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center.
- In just the first two months of its launch, ChatGPT gained more than 100 million monthly users, breaking records as one of the fastest-ever growing web applications.
Why it’s news
ChatGPT is somewhat surrounded by controversy as experts debate the ethics and potential uses of an AI chatbot. Shortly after its November release, discussion about AI dominated media tech conversations. Even now, though the debate is more broadly on generative AI, ChatGPT and its developer OpenAI remain a popular topic.
Yet, despite millions of people discussing ChatGPT, only 14% of those surveyed have tried using the chatbot. Around 42% of people have never heard of it.
Exactly how ChatGPT and similar language models should be used has been heavily debated since its launch. Some argue that it could be useful for education or lightening employees’ workloads, but others insist that it should remain an entertainment tool.
With such strong opinions, it is surprising that a small percentage of the population has toyed with the chatbot. Those who have used it have used it at work, to learn, or for entertainment, Pew reports.
This hesitation in using AI aligns with an earlier 2021 Pew survey that determined Americans were more concerned than excited about AI development.
Of those who have used ChatGPT, around 40% reported that it was somewhat useful. Around 19% use the chatbot for entertainment, 14% use it for education, and 10% use it in the workplace.
While ChatGPT may have many uses, it is far from perfect and has frequently provided users with false information and occasionally incorrectly cited trusted organizations to legitimize incorrect responses. Its incorrect responses have ranged from wrong solutions to math equations to accusing public figures of crimes they did not commit.
With its usefulness and downsides in mind, it is easy to see why Americans’ perspective of ChatGPT is relatively mixed. Around 74% said that it was somewhat, very, or extremely useful. Another 27% of respondents did not find the chatbot helpful.
However, some of this may be due to age. Younger users tend to find ChatGPT more useful than their older counterparts. Around 38% of adults under 50 reported that ChatGPT was useful. Only 24% of adults over 50 said the same.
