ChatGPT Launched
OpenAI released ChatGPT, triggering a global wave of AI adoption
November 30, 2022
The Chatbot That Everyone Used
On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public as a free research preview. Within five days it had one million users. Within two months it had 100 million — the fastest any consumer application in history had reached that milestone. People used it to write code, draft emails, explain complex topics, pass law exams, compose music, and hold conversations that felt remarkably human. Nothing in the history of technology had spread so fast or generated so much immediate debate.
What It Is
ChatGPT is built on a large language model — a neural network trained on vast amounts of text from the internet, books, and other sources. It predicts the most likely next word in a sequence, producing responses that are coherent, contextually appropriate, and often accurate. It can reason through problems, summarize documents, translate languages, and generate creative writing. It also makes mistakes — sometimes confidently — a behavior researchers call "hallucination."
The Debate It Started
ChatGPT forced urgent conversations about AI in schools, law, medicine, journalism, and art. Universities scrambled to rewrite academic integrity policies. Lawyers submitted AI-generated briefs with invented case citations. Radiologists, coders, and writers debated whether their jobs would survive. Governments began drafting AI regulation. OpenAI, which had been founded to ensure AI was safe and beneficial, found itself at the center of the biggest technological shift since the smartphone.