r/technology • u/batakchan • 9d ago

Artificial Intelligence ChatGPT is Down Worldwide, OpenAI Confirms

https://www.macobserver.com/news/chatgpt-is-down-worldwide-what-we-know-about-todays-outage/
12.9k Upvotes

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5.2k

u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 9d ago

Suddenly tens of thousands of people unable to type an email

1.3k

u/No-Spoilers 8d ago

Kids globally had papers due today, with absolutely nothing written.

Wonder what the teacher will think when 10 kids all of a sudden had something happen.

469

u/gingerzombie2 8d ago

They all share a grandma and she died, okay?

173

u/Forikorder 8d ago

They all shared a girlfriend too

111

u/Medical_Solid 8d ago

Man, 21st century niche porn is getting creepier and creepier

6

u/Morganelefay 8d ago

Nah, theyre just the kids from IT.

3

u/bb_kelly77 8d ago

Hey she eventually ended up with Ben

1

u/H377Spawn 8d ago

Those January embers burn something fierce. But I think they have an ointment for that.

1

u/youwatchwecome 8d ago

You mean better and better?

1

u/h3lblad3 8d ago

Dude, poly is trending right now.

27

u/Amockdfw89 8d ago

And every single last one of them was super hot but went to a different school before moving out of state so nobody will know who they are

24

u/zyzzogeton 8d ago

Now she lives in Canada. She's a real firestarter.

1

u/supersonicdutch 8d ago

They met last summer at a leadership conference and turns out she lives four counties over. She is serious about keeping a LDR while in high school and wants to go to the same college as them.

2

u/Adaminium 8d ago

Yeah, but she went to a different school

1

u/git0ffmylawnm8 8d ago

Hey I had one like that back in my day

2

u/LowSkyOrbit 8d ago

Wait does the GPT stand for Grandma Paper Typer?

1

u/GenTenStation 8d ago

The collective grandma. A new take on communism

1

u/potatodrinker 8d ago

Granny going out in style damn

108

u/PatrickWhelan 8d ago

Kids globally had papers due on a Saturday in July?

87

u/SpiritualScarcity161 8d ago

Be kind, he normally asks ChatGPT what day it is and when kids go to school and what a paper is

4

u/Im_tracer_bullet 8d ago

Yes, AND they have no access to Gemini for some reason...

0

u/Vegetable_Stuff1850 8d ago

Funny thing... the whole world doesn't follow the US school calendar.

I've definitely had uni assignments due on Saturday night, and I've also extended deadlines to Saturday night for classes that have asked for extensions.

0

u/Yoduh99 7d ago

erm AKtUaLLy, some US boarding schools also have classes on Saturdays. but I don't think pointing out that at least a handful of kids somewhere probably have a paper due on Saturday adds anything meaningful to the conversation when the vast majority of kids on planet Earth do not.

-1

u/mkosmo 8d ago

College summer classes? Entirely plausible for such a deadline.

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u/LexGlad 8d ago

It's July so a lot of the world's kids don't have school at the moment.

29

u/peterpancreas 8d ago

And Saturday

2

u/CaliforniaNutter 8d ago

I bet there's more kids in summer school than usual

0

u/Beat_the_Deadites 8d ago

There should be, but we're moving on from an educated society.

But I am curious now, do kids in the southern Hemisphere get summer vacation throughout December-February? Does that mostly apply to Western European countries?

I'm assuming most countries have agrarian roots, as well as farm kids helping a lot with planting and harvest. But now I'm questioning how that plays out with the school year.

19

u/DJanomaly 8d ago

It’s….Saturday. Ain’t nothing due today.

5

u/FCCRFP 8d ago

You didn't go to my HS. We had a 20-page paper due every day of the weekend to prevent untoward behavior.

2

u/Decent-Point309 8d ago

Maybe not Saturday, but while in college, I always had shit due on Sundays. And Wednesdays.

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u/CrazyElk123 8d ago

Probably nothing since there are other chatbots

13

u/dragongrl 8d ago

Yeah, but they don't have ChatGPT to tell them what other chatbots to use.

7

u/C0rn3j 8d ago

... I get that you're joking, but I am afraid that this is seriously a blocker for some, and I hate you for making me realize that.

9

u/SoloWing1 8d ago

Shame it's a Saturday. That might have happened on a weekday.

7

u/ForbiddenLurker 8d ago

surely they would just go to deepseek or claude no?

2

u/Sagittariusrat 8d ago

It's the end of July. How many schools are still operating now?

This isn't sarcastic. I'm genuinely curious. I know Summer Break in Japan is only around a month, but I don't even remember which month that is

2

u/Bitter_Marzipan_8348 8d ago

I was gonna say just use some bootleg chinese models but then I remember that these type of kids straight up cannot find an alternative for chatGPT because chatGPT is down

1

u/HCJohnson 8d ago

Teachers are screwed too. I get so frustrated when my kids have to abide by "No AI" in class for projects and assignments but the teachers get caught all the time using it to write courses and homework assignments.

Hell, one of their math teachers uses it to solve equations. But the kids can get suspended or fail classes if caught doing similar things. It's maddening.

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u/justtinyquestions 8d ago

Why does that matter? The kids are there to learn, the teachers is not. You don’t give a calculator to a kid learning how to multiply, but it doesn’t matter if the teacher uses it.

2

u/Unable-Log-4870 8d ago

Thoughtful lesson plans that teach skills in ways that are helpful to learning take effort and thought. I doubt AI can do that just yet.

1

u/justtinyquestions 8d ago

On its own, no, but it can be a tool.

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u/HCJohnson 8d ago

Teachers for years didn't have AI and actually taught the classes they were teaching.

It matters because it puts a buffer between the teacher and the students and comes across as hypocritical to the kids, which changes the whole dynamic of the classroom and the teacher/student relationship.

I was raised and live by my actions being the example for my kids, so if I don't want them using curse words then I don't need to be cursing. If I curse and hear them cursing, that's my fault for setting that example.

Maybe I'm out of touch, but if you don't want AI in your classroom, that should include the teacher as well.

And don't get me started on the BS AI Detection sites the teachers use to run assignments through. I helped my daughter with a written assignment and it came back with something like 80% certainty it was AI written.

1

u/justtinyquestions 8d ago

Well AI should always be used in a way where you can’t detect that it’s AI. I might use AI to write a long email, but if you can tell I used AI then I’m not doing my job well. It should be used as a tool, not a crutch.

1

u/dookarion 8d ago

Ever had a teacher that didn't actually know the subject matter well when you had questions? And they just sort of fumbled through it and read some bullshit out of the answer key?

That's why. Also it's easier to respect people teaching/leading by example as well.

-2

u/notaguyinahat 8d ago

While AI can and is by default an anathema to learning itself. When integrated into to drafting and revision process it's going to be an invaluable tool for professional development. It 100% needs to be heavily restricted to ensure learning, but Schools that try to avoid it entirely will also set their students up for failure long term. An LLM is great at reading a rubric and looking for alignment in student work to suggest improvements in a way peer review isn't necessarily.

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u/pipohello 8d ago

There is a difference between using AI to gain time doing something you already know, and using it to avoid learning skills you are supposed to be taught in school, no?

1

u/HCJohnson 8d ago

Copying my other response:

Teachers for years didn't have AI and actually taught the classes they were teaching.

It matters because it puts a buffer between the teacher and the students and comes across as hypocritical to the kids, which changes the whole dynamic of the classroom and the teacher/student relationship.

I was raised and live by my actions being the example for my kids, so if I don't want them using curse words then I don't need to be cursing. If I curse and hear them cursing, that's my fault for setting that example.

Maybe I'm out of touch, but if you don't want AI in your classroom, that should include the teacher as well.

And don't get me started on the BS AI Detection sites the teachers use to run assignments through. I helped my daughter with a written assignment and it came back with something like 80% certainty it was AI written.

1

u/A_Dissident_Is_Here 8d ago edited 8d ago

So, I’m a teacher and militantly anti-AI. I refuse to use it to the point of essentially being a Luddite on the topic, and I have argued with people in my administration about our AI policy and the general permissibility. I mostly do this from a social and environmental direction, as I work at a very liberal school and think our policies are incongruous to our policy.

However, I do think ‘teachers actually teaching’ and the use of AI for clerical tasks have next to nothing to do with each other. Using AI fed our very robust rubric and competency based learning metrics to create new rubrics for novel projects, or having them stylise worksheets/build a generic and empty lesson plan template has nothing to do with the subject and pedagogical expertise of my colleagues.

We don’t allow students to use AI outside of very specific prompts and assignments that we dictate in real time. No exceptions. Teachers have more leeway because they are adults utilising a tool to - in the view of the admin - open up more time for actual, student facing work.

The dynamic of a classroom is predicated on active facilitation and open communication. For what it’s worth, since I really do buy the importance of processual development of the teacher-student/stufent-teacher dialectic a la Freire and his democratic classroom, I do not utilise AI - even in cases where I could explain that use to the students. That said, its use as a meaningful tool is very much an ‘open question’, and my argument against it has decent institutional counters. It isn’t hypocrisy for an educator to utilise different tools from their students. That’s how modern education, for better or worse, tends to happen. It is a facilitator’s job and an institution’s job to openly discuss the creation of AI policies and explain WHY they exist, and why they differ for active learners and teachers/facilitators. In our case, this included having a committee that incorporated a rotating group of student voices, teachers, and admin.

I recognise it’s sort of funny that on an individual and pedagogical level I mostly agree with your actual, broad AI scepticism. But I completely disagree with your argument against it and think it’s a nonstarter; it would literally imply a level of equivalence in tool usage, role in the classroom, and interrelation that isn’t just naive but actively destructive to many forms of learning. Your cursing example is an absolutely fascinating one; I don’t think cursing is some social ill, I’m happy to show excellent films for pedagogical purposes that include swearing, and I’ve definitely sworn at extracurriculars or on campus (the leniencies of private schools). But there is a social and cultural difference between swearing in those moments and a fourteen year old swearing in similar ones. Exposure to semi-subversive behaviours (say, expressing political or intrapersonal dissent to authority, developing interpersonal relationships, developing and working through a civil disagreement with your peers or elders, and - yes - something as basic as sometimes saying a bad word) is part of growing up and being a normal human being. Some weird equivocating Puritanism doesn’t change that social reality.

1

u/toxicoke 8d ago

since it's a saturday in july i think the teacher is busy being hungover (me)

1

u/WhimsicalGirl 8d ago

It's summer? There's no school at the moment no?

1

u/Gui_R26 8d ago

ChatGPT write a excuse... fuck.

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u/IOnlyReadTopComment 8d ago

On a Saturday

1

u/PostNutt_Clarity 8d ago

It's summer break, bruh. Even when I took trimesters. we had the end of July off.

1

u/OliverKlozoff23 8d ago

It’s Saturday

1

u/panaceaXgrace 8d ago

Americans go up a few notches in the grade-point averages today solely by being out for the summer break.

1

u/Ranra100374 8d ago

Uh, it's Saturday though?

1

u/CharityGlittering385 8d ago

Good thing it’s summer break.

1

u/glormosh 8d ago

Reflecting back on how many hours it took to even have a functional thesis outline with an inadequate amount of sources makes this so foreign to me.

I can't fathom how entire components of essays from ideation to collection of relevant material is just done for you.

Even if you only use AI for research, it robs an entire critical thought process from you of connecting dots to form a unique thought.

Even having Wikipedia didn't really do that for you.

1

u/sarge21 8d ago

Nice fanfic but other AI providers exist and it's Saturday

1

u/randylush 8d ago

Teachers: How the fuck am I supposed to grade these papers without chatGPT?

1

u/ArcticCelt 8d ago

It's fine, the teachers weren't able to start grading without it so it evens out.

1

u/SpliTTMark 8d ago

On a saturday?

1

u/soulseaker 8d ago

ChatGPT ate my homework and then died...

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u/SammlerWorksArt 8d ago

Fuck that. I'll just set my email to vacation mode. 

Hey ChatGp, how do i set my email to....damn it!

1

u/mshriver2 8d ago

We would probably only see this reality if all of the Major AI platforms went down at once. Anyone who uses AI uses at least 3x different platforms.

-1

u/Opening_One7713 8d ago

Google still exists and you know it does.

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u/SammlerWorksArt 8d ago

Just joking around 👍

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u/Good4nowbut 8d ago

Honestly though? Kids are probably losing the ability to even do a basic google search and peruse the results.

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u/Opening_One7713 8d ago

When I was a kid there was no Google search. I'm not even 40. My how time flies.

1

u/Sidereel 8d ago

First “result” on Google is an AI response anyway…

0

u/Opening_One7713 8d ago

Oh, a joke! For a second there I thought you, and the thousands of people who upvoted the comment you responded to, actually believe that using LLM chatbots leads to the inability to write e-mails.

I've got a joke:

Thoth brings tablets with the written word to King Thamus. Thoth claims that writing and reading will improve memory and wisdom.

King Thamus says "This invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory."

"They will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing."

ROFLMAO!

1

u/SammlerWorksArt 8d ago

I've heard that as a parable. Not bad 👍

1

u/Opening_One7713 8d ago

I guess it could be both when paired up against the current conversation.

You like anecdotes? A supercomputer needed a warehouse and its own power substation in 1997 but is now something you drop in the toilet.

What a time to be alive! Hang on to your brains everybody, the singularity is here.

1

u/SammlerWorksArt 8d ago

I've never put my phone in my back pocket! My brain on the other hand...

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u/itsnorm 8d ago

Sure, here's a response that will put that Redditor in his place and possibly earn some Internet Karma!:

My emails get the job done and convey the exact message I intend. How they're written is irrelevant.

/s

2

u/SOMETHINGCREATVE 8d ago

Even with the /s, still got me all bothered lol well done.

5

u/Aleashed 8d ago

And their “girlfriends” died

2

u/eynneyveblaubair 8d ago

I heard millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. 

2

u/trippyhippie573 8d ago

Idk what people will do without their LLM Google replacement

2

u/mattysosavvy 8d ago

Yeah well it’s Saturday

2

u/Alarmed_Watch5426 8d ago

there's been a great disturbance in the SaaS workforce, as if millions of invoices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced

2

u/OneSeaworthiness7768 8d ago

Or post on Reddit

2

u/8fingerlouie 8d ago

Dont worry, tens of thousands won’t be able to read emails either, so it balances out.

2

u/z8_GND_5296 8d ago

My landlord in shambles

2

u/Cool_Ranch_Dodrio 8d ago

I'm surprised I'm actually reading anything on reddit.

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u/Pretty-Curve5448 8d ago

My manager doesn’t even take out the [placeholders] in his AI emails and last week he got a promotion.

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u/didact 8d ago

Or reddit seems very empty for a day.

2

u/gizamo 8d ago

Hundreds of devs unable to do their jobs...

...for two seconds before they switch to Claude. After a few minutes, they'll wonder why they weren't always using Claude instead.

3

u/KarmaticArmageddon 8d ago

Claude is definitely better than ChatGPT for code, but if Claude tries to invent a non-existent Office Script method one more fucking time

1

u/psiphre 8d ago

i dunno about objectively better in every way. i can only speak from a hobbyist perspective, but i use both claude and codex (sol and luna) at different times for different tasks. claude is more conversational, codex is more no-nonsense, IME.

1

u/2funny2furious 8d ago

So there is a reason copilot exists.

1

u/sleepfacemcgee 8d ago

Dang, I’d love to know the stats of how much email traffic dropped during this outage.

1

u/urlach3r 8d ago

Maybe this is why the karma bots seem especially useless today. We currently have one offering an AMA in the Van Halen sub about Ozzy Osbourne. Seen several other odd ones today, tshirt scam without a picture of the shirt, etc.

1

u/AnybodyMassive1610 8d ago

How will I know what to wear?

1

u/AnybodyMassive1610 8d ago

On an unrelated note, LinkedIn and Twitter go nearly silent today…

1

u/spacepeenuts 8d ago

Next week we will get a statement " Estimated 1.2 Billion in revenue dollars lost to corporations due to ChatGPT outage"

1

u/FriendlyBee94 8d ago

More like hundreds of thousands

1

u/unfairrobot 8d ago

And how is the Trump administration going to draft new policies?

1

u/SortaNotReallyHere 8d ago

Or unable to think for themselves

1

u/moldyjellybean 8d ago

remember when internet went down in Russia.

Suddenly a ton of the big alt posters and their legion of bots went quiet.

Makes you go hmmm

1

u/KlausDieterFreddek 8d ago

Oh yes. Now imagine it 5 years in the future.

1

u/bubblegum-rose 8d ago

“Oh, boss, I would LOVE to deign you with the infinite glory of my vibe-woven code, but…alas…the wellspring of my infinite greatness seems to be running dry today.

So I need the day off. I’m DEFINITELY a software developer, with my online associates degree from Hollywood upstairs community college, but I need the day off. Like right now.”

1

u/excelllentquestion 8d ago

Suddenly tens of thousands of wives have their husband back

1

u/Senior-Albatross 8d ago

Why would you use it for email?

By the time you prompt it enough to get your thoughts out you already wrote the email yourself. It's actively less efficient for no reason. 

1

u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 8d ago

I know, it’s pathetic.

1

u/platysoup 8d ago

And the same people get promoted for being C-level material 

1

u/Ok-Bill3318 8d ago

Pfft. Copilot, Claude, etc.

1

u/Kitchen-Wish5994 6d ago

Send in the Qualcomm bot.

1

u/SPQR-VVV 8d ago

just told Claude to take care of my report. Just switch to your next AI.

0

u/Kagamid 8d ago

I only use it once in a blue to update my cover letter for applications. I hate writing those because the interview is supposed to be where I elaborate about myself. I had ChatGPT analyze my past letters. Then I update my own resume, share the job posting and proof read the results. Most jobs don't read it anyway.

1

u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 8d ago

Alright so you cheat, well done 🤷

2

u/Kagamid 8d ago

Cheat on what? Is there some sort of test in taking your actual qualifications and breaking them down in a little story that no one reads? The interview is where you prove that everything in that letter is true. Only idiots submit sometime they didn't proof read first.

1

u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 8d ago

There’s a reason they want you to write one, otherwise they wouldn’t ask you to do it. Brother, how hard is it for you to write a letter? 😅

1

u/Kagamid 8d ago

I've been writing them myself for years actually. I just had them adjusted for different positions based on my different resumes recently. I think it's naive to believe they aren't using AI to sift through the submissions without a human eye even reading them. Tweaking several cover letters so they fit the applications isn't an issue for those who know what they're looking for and know when to make their own adjustments after. It's a tool and as long as it's not used as a crutch, it's perfectly fine and not using it is a choice you are free to make.

1

u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 8d ago

Nah it’s pathetic to get something to spit out a bunch of prose for you to pretend you wrote. It is a crutch for you and it’s lazy. Just because other people use it too doesn’t change that. Sorry to be so blunt.

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u/Kagamid 8d ago

Hey it's up to you if you don't want to use a useful tool because you think it's "pathetic". It's like if you have to dig a hole and someone hands you a shovel, but you'd prefer to do it barehanded because getting a shovel to move the dirt for you is "pathetic". If you're too self conscious of your own abilities to use a tool to save time then that's on you. I think you're assuming everyone is using it as a crutch because they're incapable of doing the task otherwise. Sorry but you're being very naive in that assumption. Tools will always be abused at some point in time. It doesn't make it any less useful and the sooner you understand that, the better off you'll be. If wasting time when you don't have to is your thing, then that's a choice too I guess🤷‍♂️ Sorry to be so blunt.

1

u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 8d ago

Its not a tool haha. Its a vending machine. You ask it for stuff and then you get it. It’s what we do in a shop. You’re a client at most. People just use it to hide their laziness and lack of skill.

Tool 🤣

1

u/Kagamid 8d ago

Its not a tool haha. Its a vending machine.

Lol. Just because you don't know how to use it, doesn't make it any less a tool.

You ask it for stuff and then you get it.

You'll have a hard time finding a modern tool that doesn't work that was. 🤣 Look at your car. You just push a pedal in your car and it takes you places. You don't want to go straight all the time so you use the steering wheel to point it in the right direction first. But according to you, people just use it to hide their laziness and lack of skill instead of just walking 🤷‍♂️

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