ChatGPT Public Launch

Setting the scene

By 2022, large language models had advanced rapidly—GPT-3 was released in 2020, demonstrating impressive text generation, but was only available via API and expensive. OpenAI, founded in 2015 as a nonprofit, had become a capped-profit company and was developing more capable models. The company had released DALL-E 2 for image generation in April 2022. Researchers knew that chat interfaces made AI more accessible, but no major lab had released a free, general-purpose chatbot to the public due to concerns about misuse and cost.

What happened

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI quietly released ChatGPT as a free research preview, based on GPT-3.5 fine-tuned for conversation using reinforcement learning from human feedback. The interface was simple—a text box where users could ask anything. Within 5 days, ChatGPT reached 1 million users, the fastest-growing consumer app in history. By January 2023, it had 100 million users. The chatbot could write essays, code, poetry, and answer questions with remarkable fluency, though it also hallucinated false information. Its capabilities stunned the public and experts alike.

Why it still matters

ChatGPT's launch triggered an AI boom, with Google, Microsoft, and others rushing to release competitors. It demonstrated that AI had crossed a threshold from research curiosity to general-purpose technology. The launch raised urgent questions about AI's impact on jobs, education, misinformation, and safety. It led to a $100 billion investment surge in AI and made 'generative AI' the tech buzzword of 2023. ChatGPT also sparked debates about AI regulation, copyright, and existential risk. The launch marked the moment AI became mainstream, comparable to the iPhone's 2007 launch or the web browser's 1993 release. It fundamentally changed how people interact with computers.

Background

It quickly became one of the fastest-growing consumer apps.