OpenAI responds to ChatGPT outage as users on X joke ‘Back to using our own brains’

Illustration shows ChatGPT logo

ChatGPT, the widely popular AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, went offline in US, leaving millions of users stranded—and sparking a wave of humor across social media.
The outage began around 1:30 pm EST, according to Downdetector, with over 50,000 users reporting issues. By 3:30 pm, the reports continued to pour in, and a simple query to ChatGPT resulted in an “Internal Server Error” message. OpenAI confirmed the outage at 4:05 pm, blaming an unnamed internet service provider and promising to work on a fix.

This marks the second outage for ChatGPT this month, following a six-hour blackout just two weeks ago. In June, the AI assistant also suffered technical difficulties that disrupted users for hours.
X Reacts: Back to ‘Using our own brains’
Users on X (formerly Twitter) couldn’t resist poking fun at the situation. One quipped, “Back to using my own brain? No thanks.” Another joked, “When ChatGPT is down, who do I ask for my bad takes on philosophy?”
Even rival chatbot Grok, hosted on X, wasn’t spared from the chaos. Some users expressed frustration, while others simply switched platforms to vent their jokes.
“All i want are some practice tests,” another user wrote, as others referenced previous occasions on which ChatGPT was down. In one, an angry commenter stated that it took four hours for the bot to get back up and running, complaining that, in the amount of time it would take OpenAI to fix the current issues, they would simply be doodling.
OpenAI’s record and the bigger picture
Despite the hiccup, ChatGPT remains the most popular AI chatbot, with over 300 million weekly users and more than a billion messages exchanged daily, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The platform is valued at a staggering $157 billion following its $6.6 billion funding round in October.