OpenAI’s flagship AI service, ChatGPT, along with its associated services like the API and Sora, experienced a significant global outage, leaving millions of users unable to access these tools.
The disruption began at approximately 11 a.m. PT, with OpenAI quickly acknowledging the issue on their status page, stating, “We are currently experiencing an issue with high error rates on ChatGPT, the API, and Sora. We are currently investigating and will post an update as soon as we are able”.
The outage was attributed to complications with an unnamed upstream provider, a company that connects local internet service providers to the internet.
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OpenAI’s engineers were actively working on a fix, but as of the latest updates, the services were still experiencing partial recovery, with Sora being the first to return to full operation.
ChatGPT Globally Down Again
This incident marks the second notable outage for ChatGPT and Sora within the month of December, following a similar disruption two weeks prior. The previous outage was blamed on a new telemetry service gone awry, lasting for roughly six hours, which is unusually long for such disruptions.
The impact of this outage was felt widely, with over 50,000 outage logs reported on Downdetector.com, peaking around 1:30 p.m. EST. Users attempting to access ChatGPT were met with an “Internal Server Error,” signaling deeper technical problems.
The outage affected not only individual users but also businesses and services that rely on ChatGPT for customer service and operational workflows, highlighting the critical role AI services play in modern productivity.
This reflects the growing reliance on AI tools and the cultural impact of such disruptions on everyday life and business processes.
OpenAI, valued at around $157 billion following a recent funding round, has historically managed to resolve such issues within hours. However, the recurring nature of these outages raises questions about the infrastructure and reliability of AI services as they scale.
As the situation continues to develop, users remain hopeful for a swift resolution. OpenAI’s commitment to improving service reliability will likely be a focus in the upcoming months, with potential innovations and upgrades to its technological infrastructure on the horizon to maintain its market leadership amidst these challenges.
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