ChatGPT again saw significant reach growth in October, meaning OpenAI‘s generative AI chatbot remains the benchmark. However, Google was able to score points with the AI tool NotebookLM, as the figures from the analysis service SimilarWeb show.
October as a record month
ChatGPT saw a 17.2 percent increase in website views in October compared to September and now has 3.7 billion views worldwide. This is a growth of 115.9 percent compared to the previous year. OpenAI’s chatbot is growing rapidly again. After a slump in the summer of 2023 and hesitant gains in reach in the following months, ChatGPT has been able to increase again since the spring of this year.
SimilarWeb: Reach of ChatGPT (Image: SimilarWeb)
In addition to the web service, OpenAI also offers an app version of the chatbot for Android, iOS, MacOS and Windows. SimilarWeb does not provide absolute numbers. Only in the USA is it reported that the number of daily users increased by 19 percent from September to October.
ChatGPT far ahead of Copilot, Gemini and Claude
ChatGPT remains clearly at the forefront of AI chatbots. Microsoft’s assistant web service Copilot had 69.4 million views in October. This is an increase of 87.6 percent compared to the previous month, but a good part of this is due to redirects via the search engine Bing. However, it should be noted that only part of Copilot usage can be recorded via the web service; This can also be used via Windows and numerous Microsoft programs.
Ranking of generative AI chatbots in October 2024
Meanwhile, Google’s Gemini reached 291.6 million views in October, up 6.2 percent month-on-month and 19 percent year-over-year. Anthropic’s chatbot Claude achieved significantly higher growth rates. This reached 84.1 million views in October, an increase of 25.5 percent compared to September and an annual growth of 394.9 percent. Generative AI search engine Perplexity has 90.8 million views, up 25.5 percent compared to September. These numbers also apply to web services.
NotebookLM as a surprise hit
While Gemini is hardly growing, at least in the web version, Google has a surprise success with NotebookLM. Essentially, this generative AI service is used to analyze documents. Texts, books or studies can be uploaded via this and the user then receives a summary. You can also ask specific questions – so it is primarily a research tool.
The service has been available since July 2023, but NotebookLM saw a lot of hype in September this year. The reason: Podcasts can be automatically generated that summarize the source of a conversation. The results went viral on social media.
Google’s NotebookLM is currently the best “Wow, this is amazing and useful” demo of AI
Here I have given the entire text of my book and turned it into a podcast, a study guide, FAQ, a timeline and a fairly detailed chat
Listen to the first few minutes of the “podcast”. Seriously, just listen. pic.twitter.com/zO27f2FnlY
– Ethan Mollick (@emollick) 18. September 2024
Such advertising pays off. NotebookLM now has a reach of 31.5 million views. The service grew by 201 percent in October, following a growth rate of around 300 percent in September.
ChatGPT: Relevance check in the presidential election
While services like Claude, Perplexity and NotebookLM grow, ChatGPT remains at the forefront. Even with the top dog, the question still arises as to the extent to which the range can be converted into everyday relevance. The US presidential election provided proof of this.
This is the takeaway from such a crucial result: new features like internet search make the chatbot more useful, but OpenAI is primarily about providing reliable information. Responses should also not include policy preferences or recommendations for a candidate, even if specifically asked. ChatGPT therefore used sources such as the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies, which were referenced in the answers. This is said to have been the case with around 2 million ChatGPT responses both on election day and the day after.
How Decoder Note that these numbers are not particularly impressive. On Election Day alone, CNN received 67 million visitors to its website.
To prevent deep fakes, there were also restrictions on the Dall-E image generator. Images of candidates Trump and Harris as well as vice presidential candidates Vance and Walz and President Biden could not be generated; OpenAI says it blocked 250,000 requests in the run-up to the election. Also a number that is surprisingly low given the prevalence of ChatGPT.
