Millions of ChatGPT users are uninstalling app over controversial decision

Over a million people have uninstalled the ChatGPT app after the AI's owners signed an incredibly controversial new deal.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently announced he'd signed a new deal with the US Department of Defense (DoD), or the Department of War as they're insisting on calling it at the moment, which didn't go down well with ChatGPT's user base.

According to Forbes a site where people pledged to boycott the AI reached 1.5 million on Monday (2 March) and that same site now says 2.5 million people have signed up, and some of them have been uninstalling the app.

TechCrunch reported that over the weekend people uninstalling ChatGPT rose by 295 percent, while rival AI company Anthropic saw their app Claude go to the top of the Apple Store in the US and for the first time more people were downloading it than ChatGPT.

A huge number of poor reviews for ChatGPT were also left.

OpenAI, which runs ChatGPT, has signed a deal with the US Department of Defense (Prakash Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

According to the BBC, the US government had until recently been using OpenAI's rival Anthropic before a row over how artificial intelligence could be used by the Pentagon broke out.

Anthropic boss Dario Amodei said they were concerned about their AI Claude being used for 'mass domestic surveillance' and 'fully autonomous weapons'.

US President Donald Trump declared he was telling the American government to stop using Anthropic, saying on social media: "We don't need it, we don't want it, and will not do business with them again!"

Hours later the US military were still using Claude to help select targets for missile strikes in Iran, per the Wall Street Journal.

OpenAI boss Altman told his staff he had the same 'red lines' over using artificial intelligence, though his company secured a deal with the DoD which days later he described as 'opportunistic and sloppy' as he said they'd had to change some of the language in the deal.

ChatGPT has seen a big jump in the number of people uninstalling it as a result (Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

In a statement OpenAI said the deal now stated their AI 'shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals', and they said the DoD understood this would 'prohibit deliberate tracking, surveillance, or monitoring of U.S. persons or nationals'.

They've said their red lines are 'mass domestic surveillance', 'direct autonomous weapons systems' and 'high-stakes automated decisions' like a 'social credit' system.

Nonetheless, the backlash has continued as people are concerned that OpenAI signed a deal with the DoD when another AI company just had a falling out with them over how the technology would be used.

NDTV also reports that in an all-hands meeting a couple of days ago Altman told employees the DoD would listen on how to use the technology but OpenAI employees 'do not get to make operational decisions' and the US government didn't want to hear their opinions on decisions.

The LADbible Group have contacted OpenAI for comment.