Mass exodus looms for OpenAI as 2.5 million users vow to boycott ChatGPT after DoD deal: Report

Problems for OpenAI are continuing to intensify as the company is now reportedly facing mass subscription cancellations. Notably, the company has been facing backlash ever since it signed the deal with the US government last week for using its AI tools to power the Pentagon’s classified projects. The deal had come just hours after US Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth had said Anthropic would be labelled a supply chain risk, a classification usually reserved for adversarial foreign companies.

The warning along with the blacklisting of Anthropic by the US government had come after the AI startup did not allow the Pentagon a carte blanche use of its AI systems for military purposes.

Ever since then, users on social media platforms like Reddit and X have claimed they are switching to Claude over OpenAI’s ChatGPT due to the company’s ‘opportunistic’ stance. However, a new website even goes on to claim that over 2.5 million users have pledged to boycott ChatGPT since the company accepted the US Department of Defense’s deal.

“ChatGPT takes Trump’s killer robot deal. It’s time to Quit.” reads the website.

The stated aim of the website is to organise ‘Americans and people around the world to quit ChatGPT.’

“ChatGPT users skew young and progressive, and many don’t know about alternatives. We can push OpenAI over the edge. If we make an example of ChatGPT, we can send a clear signal to ICE enablers that their actions will not go unpunished. Let’s make CEOs think twice before they get in bed with Trump.” reads the website.

Notably, the website also calls for a boycott of Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot and instead urges users to go for open-source alternatives: Confer, Alpine and Lumo or even corporate options like Gemini and Claude.

A recent report by TechCrunch, while citing market intelligence provider Sensor Tower data, had also noted that the mobile app uninstalls of ChatGPT jumped 295% on Saturday, a day after the deal was announced.

Meanwhile, the US downloads of OpenAI’s direct rival Claude jumped 37% day-over-day on Friday and 51% on Saturday.

Sam Altman defends OpenAI deal:

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has defended the deal with the Pentagon in public and private meetings since Friday. Altman has since then admitted that OpenAI should not have rushed to push out the deal on the same day as Anthropic was effectively blacklisted by the US government.

In a post on X, he wrote, “The issues are super complex, and demand clear communication. We were genuinely trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome, but I think it just looked opportunistic and sloppy. Good learning experience for me as we face higher-stakes decisions in the future.”