Overview
- ChatGPT suffered a worldwide disruption on December 2, with error reports spiking from hundreds to over 1,200 within minutes, according to DownDetector timelines around 16:30 local times.
- Users on web and mobile saw network errors, white screens, and stalled loading, affecting both free and Plus accounts, while OpenAI’s status page cited elevated error rates and a mitigation in progress.
- Preliminary reports signaled possible impact on OpenAI’s API, raising operational risks for thousands of third‑party apps and business workflows that rely on the service.
- Multiple outlets report Sam Altman declared an internal code red, shifting teams to improve ChatGPT’s speed, reliability, and personalization, while delaying ads, DALL‑E focus, health and shopping agents, and the Pulse assistant.
- The reprioritization follows recent competitive gains by Google’s Gemini 3 and Anthropic’s Claude, with coverage citing ChatGPT’s roughly 800 million users versus Gemini’s reported 650 million monthly users.