The artificial intelligence (AI) service ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, faced periods of instability for its users during the afternoon of this Monday, the 28th. Reports of problems began in the early afternoon and were mainly concentrated on the platform's web interface.
Tests conducted by Olhar Digital on the chatbot's web version did not detect failures, suggesting that the situation was not universal. According to DownDetector, which tracks complaints about digital services, the first records of problems emerged around 1:20 PM. The number of complaints reached its peak about fifteen minutes later, at 1:35 PM, totaling 661 reports.
Despite the increase in notifications, the official OpenAI status page did not indicate any failure in ChatGPT at the time the problems were reported. Other monitoring systems also registered user reports.
Analysis of Instability Reports
It is important to note that the volume of data collected by DownDetector does not imply that all ChatGPT users were affected. This platform consolidates notifications sent by users themselves and may capture restricted fluctuations or problems affecting only a portion of the user base.
Service tracking tools, such as IsDown and StatusGator, show that users can continue reporting difficulties even when the service is classified as functional.
As of the investigation, OpenAI had not issued a public statement explaining the origin of this instability that occurred on Monday.
Context of Previous Problems
This episode occurs just days after other incidents recorded in OpenAI's services. Monitoring by IsDown pointed, for example, to an occurrence related to Codex on September 25th and 26th, in addition to various other problems involving different ChatGPT functionalities throughout the month.
On September 23rd, the monitoring service registered an increase in error rates for ChatGPT subscribers on Plus and Pro plans. On the same day, there was also a specific incident related to ChatGPT Work. These records indicate that failures can affect specific components without meaning a total shutdown of ChatGPT for all users.
Therefore, the reports from this Monday point to localized instability, without confirmation of a generalized service interruption by OpenAI.