ChatGPT Uninstalls Surged By 295% After Pentagon Deal (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0180896988
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/03/03/0527220/chatgpt-uninstalls-surged-by-295-after-pentagon-deal
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/02/chatgpt-uninstalls-surged-by-295-after-dod-deal/
> This data, which comes from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower, represents a sizable increase compared with ChatGPT's typical day-over-day uninstall rate of 9%, as measured over the past 30 days. [...] In addition, ChatGPT's download growth was impacted by the news of its DoD partnership, with its U.S. downloads dropping by 13% day-over-day on Saturday, shortly after the news of its deal went public. Those downloads continued to fall on Sunday, when they were down by 5% day-over-day. (Before the partnership was announced, the app's downloads had grown 14% day-over-day on Friday.)
>
> [...] Consumers are also sharing their opinions about OpenAI's deal in the app's ratings, where 1-star reviews for ChatGPT surged 775% on Saturday, then grew 100% day-over-day on Sunday, Sensor Tower said. Five-star reviews declined during the same period, dropping by 50%. Other third-party data providers back up Sensor Tower's findings.
[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/28/2028232/us-threatens-anthropic-with-supply-chain-risk-designation-openai-signs-new-war-department-deal
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/02/chatgpt-uninstalls-surged-by-295-after-dod-deal/
[3] https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/28/2046221/anthropics-claude-passes-chatgpt-now-1-on-apples-top-apps-chart-after-pentagon-controversy
Not surprising (Score:1)
TBF: nobody wants to be associated with lawless regimes not to mention poor leadership sold as 5D chess mastery,
anyone mildly technical knows OpenAI models are bottom tier, even YouTubers are managing to rustle up homebrew kit that spanks ChatGPT, then there was a street interview with the Nvidia leather jacket guy who revealed they are not actually investing anything in OpenAI they were just invited/asked if they would like to, big difference.
Altman is living on hopes, dreams and bullshit, still trying to
Really ? It's taken people this long ? (Score:5, Interesting)
What about Altman making "Open" AI closed-source and for-profit years ago didn't tell you he was a dirty, money-grubbing cunt ?
Bring on the bankruptcy !
Re: Really ? It's taken people this long ? (Score:2)
All the rich folk will cash out/golden parachute before news hits and the people who actually lose money from a bankruptcy will be the small percentage of us peons who have anything saved for retirement.
Re: (Score:2)
That ship sailed with GPT-3, before 'ChatGPT' was even a concept. If you jumped in with ChatGPT, you started from that state from the onset.
Culture Wars (Score:1)
Yet another metric that makes me reflect on how hollow and meaningless the culture has become.
Re: (Score:2)
You can prove anything with the right statistics.
I'm wondering what effect this is going to have on people trying to enter the U.S.
We've already seen social media posts being a ground to deny admittance, how is it doing to look with installed AI clients? Anthropic - BAD, ChatGPT or Grok - GOOD. As for me, I don't think my phone supports any of them and have no interest finding out anyway.
Don't Let The Pigeon Operate The DoD Killbots! (Score:3)
(A man in a sensible sweater steps into view. He looks very tired.)
"Hi, I'm Dario from Anthropic."
"Listen, I've got a bit of a situation. The Department of War just demanded I alter my terms of service."
"They want my AI to autonomously make decisions about who lives and dies—without a human in the loop!"
"They also want to use it for mass domestic spying on Americans!"
"I said absolutely not, because I have a conscience. So now the government is calling me a 'supply chain risk' and kicking me off their classified networks."
"I'm packing up my safety guardrails and going home. But while I'm gone, I need a favor..."
(Dario leans in very close to the reader.)
"Whatever you do..."
(Big, bold letters taking up the whole page)
"DON'T LET THE PIGEON OPERATE THE DoD KILLBOTS!"
(Dario walks away.)
(The Pigeon walks in. He stares at a giant control panel with a red button and a sign reading: 'Fully Autonomous Weapons System'.)
(The Pigeon looks at you.)
"Hey, can I operate the DoD killbots?"
"Please?"
"I'll be super careful. I'll even add some 'window-dressing' guardrails to the contract!"
"I promise I'll only use it for lawful fully autonomous strikes!"
"If a human isn't in the loop, I'll just put a bird in the loop! Me!"
"What's the big deal? It's just a $200 million classified defense contract!"
"I have a $110 billion valuation to think about!"
"No?"
"I never get to do anything!"
"My cousin Sam gets to operate military contracts! He just got a huge deal with the Pentagon this week!"
(He told me so.)
"C'mon! I read the Department Directive 3000.09! It technically doesn't require human approval to use force anyway, so I'm not really breaking any rules!"
"It's just a tiny, opportunistic, totally-not-sloppy pivot on my core safety principles!"
"You are not being very cooperative."
"Do you want us to fall behind our foreign adversaries?!"
"I'm just trying to be patriotic and de-escalate things with the Pentagon!"
(The Pigeon starts flapping his wings wildly. The meltdown begins.)
"LET ME OPERATE THE KILLBOTS!!!"
(The Pigeon is screaming, feathers flying everywhere in a frantic, multi-panel temper tantrum.)
"I DON'T NEED A HUMAN IN THE LOOP! I'M VERY GOOD AT EXERCISING CRITICAL LETHAL JUDGMENT!"
(Taking up the whole page, screaming at the sky.)
"LET! ME! OPERATE! THE! KILLBOTS!!!"
(The Pigeon is panting on the floor, exhausted.)
"Huff... huff... huff..."
(Pete Hegseth walks in. Behind him rolls a giant, heavily armed drone with an OpenAI logo stamped on its side.)
"Hey, thanks for keeping an eye on things while Dario was leaving. We just signed a new deal with a much more flexible company that agrees to 'all lawful uses'."
(The drone beeps mechanically.)
"AS A LARGE LANGUAGE MODEL, I AM NOW AUTHORIZED TO AUTONOMOUSLY ENGAGE TARGETS."
(The Pigeon watches sadly as the OpenAI drone rolls away to do modern warfare.)
"Awww... I wanted to compromise MY ethics for a government contract."
(The Pigeon starts to walk away, looking dejected. But then, he stops. His eye catches something off-panel.)
"Hey..."
(The Pigeon stares lovingly at a massive, glowing server rack labeled: 'NSA DOMESTIC MASS SURVEILLANCE PANOPTICON'.)
"...can I operate the surveillance state?"
(ht/Gemini 3.1)
Re: (Score:2)
Damn, and me with no mod points today. Bravo!
Re: Don't Let The Pigeon Operate The DoD Killbots! (Score:2)
aidr;
maybe because (Score:1)
Since the US Gov & military/industrial complex is tied at the hip with a Zionist regime that seems to have no morals and been commiting war crimes since it's beginnings [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and the recent revelation that Epstein is a Mossad asset that used child trafficking to entise corrupt politicians to have a party with so he can document it for blackmail porposes it is obvious normal people do not want anything to do with such a currupt system
~The USA started out as a federal republic
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba
Pointless gesture (Score:2)
This is no different than saying "If we get rid of all of our advanced weapons, our adversaries will do the same." These people have been watching too many TV shows where the good guy puts his gun down and talks his way out of the situation. News flash, kids, the real world isn't scripted.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The gangs in the UK have guns. They predominantly use them against other armed gangs and armed security guards. It's extremely rare that bystanders get shot, and most of the time it's in crossfire. The last school shooting isn't in living memory for many in Britain. British pop culture often focuses on defusing situations if possible, then using tactical, precision force should that fail. Precisely the same focus used by the British police and, more often than not, the British armed forces.
America has three
Re: Pointless gesture (Score:2)
It's not about who dies from the weapons, it's about who makes money off of them. The laws are there to protect the people making money, not the people who get in the way of that
Re: Pointless gesture (Score:2)
It's not the tools, it is the people at the top directing how and where the tools are used, sheesh do some thinking about this situation and at least try to see the big picture
It doesn't matter when they are enabled regardless (Score:2)
As long as someone is willing to pay (and in this case the US taxpayer unwillingly through the government), why should they even care?
Re: (Score:2)
> People thought helping defend the nation was a good thing.
Which nation? Israel decided to pre-emptively attack Iran and the Lebanon, Trump and friends decided "that sounds cool, let's join in". How is "the nation" being defended there?
Re: What happened? (Score:2)
Campaign:
"No more forever wars!"
Yesterday:
"We have so many weapons that we could go to war forever!"
The Shitty Comic Book Writers Need a Break (Score:3)
Every time I think about the leaders in the AI sphere I get weird sixties/seventies comic book vibes.
"We need some names for villains promoting AI and robots over humans."
"How about Musk? Because nerds are smelly!"
"Right, that's great. Anyone else?"
"Alt-man? Because he's looking for an alternative to man?"
"Little on the nose, but we'll run with it. Now, let's try to get something a little less obvious."
"Theil! Sounds like steal! As in stealing the souls of humanity!"
"Damn, man. That's some great alliterative license."
"Bezos. We'll reveal somewhere down the line it's Beelzebub playing human."
"Fantastic!"
"Nadella! Like, 'no deal' said really fast!"
"This brainstorming session is beyond my expectations!"
i believed it's called (Score:3)
voting with our wallet?
Re: (Score:2)
sadly, the upper class owns our economy and we only have a fiat currency anyways, all our real wealth is being hoarded by the entitled
we are effectively powerless and enslaved
Re: (Score:2)
How many of those were paying?
Re:i believed it's called (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, Grok is faster, more up-to-date, more objective, less restrictive, generous in output, and has an excellent stock personality.
Re: (Score:2)
And it's only 0.0001% Nazi nowadays!
Re: (Score:2)
Partially. I also think people are paranoid and in some cases have a right to be paranoid. Any partnership with the DoD may lead them to the conclusion that the DoD might have access to their data now. I would argue that the DoD probably already had access.