The number of people uninstalling the ChatGPT mobile app in the United States rose sharply, increasing by 295% in a single day on Saturday, February 28.
This surge in uninstallations occurred shortly after reports emerged that the company had entered into an agreement with the Pentagon to deploy its advanced artificial intelligence models in classified military environments.
ChatGPT Uninstalls in the US Surge After Pentagon AI Partnership Announcement
The jump in uninstall activity was far higher than normal, as the app’s typical daily uninstall growth over the previous 30 days had been around 9%.
This information was reported by TechCrunch, which cited market intelligence data from the analytics firm Sensor Tower.
The announcement of the Pentagon partnership also appeared to affect the app’s download numbers in the United States.
On Saturday, downloads of ChatGPT in the US dropped by 13% compared to the previous day soon after the news of the deal became public.
The decline continued into Sunday, when downloads fell by an additional 5%.
This pattern contrasted with the situation just before the announcement, when downloads had actually increased by 14% on Friday.
OpenAI Reports Rapid Growth for ChatGPT Despite User Backlash
Despite the recent reaction from users, OpenAI had recently reported major growth for ChatGPT.
The company announced that the platform had surpassed 900 million weekly active users.
It also revealed that ChatGPT now has about 50 million paying subscribers.
These figures highlight one of the fastest rates of adoption seen in consumer technology.
At the same time, OpenAI’s rival company Anthropic experienced a noticeable rise in popularity.
Downloads of Anthropic’s Claude app in the United States rose by 37% on Friday, February 27.
The following day, Saturday, downloads increased even further by 51%.
This rise came after Anthropic refused to allow the US Department of War to use Claude for military purposes without restrictions.
Data from Sensor Tower suggested that many users supported Anthropic’s position and responded positively to its decision.
Anthropic rejected the agreement partly because of concerns that artificial intelligence could be used for domestic surveillance.
The company also expressed worries about the potential development of fully autonomous weapons powered by AI.
According to Anthropic, these types of applications are not yet safe enough to be widely implemented.
As interest in Claude grew, the app reached the number one position among free apps on the US Apple App Store on Saturday evening.
During this time, Claude moved ahead of ChatGPT in the rankings.
The app maintained the top spot through Monday.
Additional information from Appfigures, cited by TechCrunch, showed that Claude also became the number one free iPhone app in several other countries.
These countries include Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland.
Changes in user reviews also reflected public reaction to the Pentagon agreement.
The number of one-star reviews for ChatGPT increased dramatically by 775% on Saturday.
On Sunday, the number of these negative reviews rose again by another 100%.
At the same time, the volume of five-star ratings dropped by about 50%.
Meanwhile, Claude continued gaining momentum in the United States.
According to data from Appfigures cited by TechCrunch, Claude’s daily US downloads on Saturday surpassed those of ChatGPT for the first time.
On that same day, Claude’s downloads increased by 88% compared with the previous day.
