ChatGPT uninstalls jump nearly 300% after OpenAI military deal
According to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, U.S. app uninstalls jumped 295% day over day on Saturday, February 28. That increase far exceeded the app’s usual daily uninstall change of about 9% over the past 30 days.
At the same time, downloads of rival AI assistant Claude, developed by Anthropic, rose significantly. U.S. downloads climbed 37% day over day on Friday, February 27, and 51% on Saturday after the company announced it would not partner with the U.S. defense department.
Anthropic said it could not agree to the deal terms because of concerns that AI could be used to surveil Americans or power fully autonomous weapons, which the company said the technology is not yet ready to do safely.
The reaction also affected ChatGPT’s download growth. U.S. downloads of the app fell 13% day-over-day on Saturday shortly after news of the defense partnership became public. They dropped another 5% on Sunday. Just a day earlier, downloads had been up 14% on Friday.
Consumer response was also visible in the app’s ratings. Sensor Tower reported that one-star reviews for ChatGPT jumped 775% on Saturday and increased another 100% on Sunday, while 5-star reviews fell by 50% during the same period.
Other analytics firms reported similar trends. Data from Appfigures showed that Claude’s total daily U.S. downloads surpassed ChatGPT’s for the first time on Saturday. Its estimates suggested Claude downloads rose 88% day over day that day.
The surge also pushed Claude to the No. 1 position on the U.S. App Store on Saturday. The app had climbed more than 20 places compared with its ranking around February 22.
Outside the United States, Appfigures said Claude has also become the top free iPhone app in six countries, including Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland.
A third analytics provider, Similarweb, reported that Claude’s U.S. downloads over the past week were about 20 times higher than in January, though it cautioned that factors beyond the political controversy may also have contributed to the spike.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that OpenAI signed an AI deployment deal with U.S. Department of War.
