OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT has been facing a global outage for more than five hours, with users on social media sharing pictures of error messages and waiting for the issue to be resolved.
However, OpenAI, while acknowledging the complaints, has not provided a timeline for the resolution of the issues. Thousands of users, especially in India and the US, have been affected by the outage. As of 5 pm, more than 600 users in India were still facing problems using ChatGPT, according to Down Detector.
Of these, 88 per cent problems pertained to the core functionality of the AI chatbot, 8 per cent faced issues on the app and 4 per cent with the API. While the number of complaints has seen a slight decrease, hundreds of users are still affected.
Here are some alternative AI chatbots that users can try out.
Google Gemini
Created by big tech heavyweight Google, Gemini can not just perform the primary functions of AI chatbots, but also be of assistance in integrating information with other Google apps on the users' phones. It can facilitate integrations with Google Docs and Gmail, while retrieving information from other applications like Drive, Maps and more. The chatbot has recently added a new feature of scheduling actions to its resources.
Grok AI
The chatbot Grok, especially Grok 3, has been developed by Elon Musk's xAI. Grok is different from traditional AI models in that it uses and analyses information from the web as well as social media platform X, also owned by Musk. Grok can smoothly carry out interactions with any form of content on X, like user profiles, posts, uploaded files etc. Apart from generating real-time responses after searching the web and X for a query, Grok can also process images, analyse files uploaded by users and generate visuals.
Copilot
{{/usCountry}}The chatbot Grok, especially Grok 3, has been developed by Elon Musk's xAI. Grok is different from traditional AI models in that it uses and analyses information from the web as well as social media platform X, also owned by Musk. Grok can smoothly carry out interactions with any form of content on X, like user profiles, posts, uploaded files etc. Apart from generating real-time responses after searching the web and X for a query, Grok can also process images, analyse files uploaded by users and generate visuals.
Copilot
{{/usCountry}}Copilot AI, developed by Microsoft, uses the same models as ChatGPT, given Microsoft's investment in OpenAI. Therefore, the user experience on the chatbot will resemble that of ChatGPT. However, Microsoft could have an added advantage for those who use its products or apps, due to the ease in integration with the chatbot. Copilot is built into Microsoft Edge, implying that the users can also ask the chatbot questions on the webpage they are browsing.
Claude
Claude, developed by Anthropic, has features similar to ChatGPT and can help professionals in that it can assist in allowing users to code small apps running inside the chatbot. The Washington Post conducted a reading test among five AI bots, with Claude emerging the ultimate winner, and was the only chatbot that did not “hallucinate”. Claude is also known for its writing style, which tends to be more natural and human than other chatbots.
Perplexity
While Perplexity is mostly seen as a replacement for traditional search engines, it provided latest and accurate information. It also provided the users with more sources, while also allowing them to decide where they want their information to come from. The chatbot can be asked to search academic papers, websites, Reddit etc depending on what suits the query.