GoKawiilProtesters gather with banners and placards outside the offices of Google Deepmind at a protest organized by PauseAI UK and other groups concerned in controlling the development of advanced Artificial Intelligence systems, in London on February 28, 2026. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
With college graduates jeering mentions of artificial intelligence at commencement speeches, and voices as disparate as the Pope and technology giant Anthropic warning of the risks of unmitigated AI development, public sentiment toward the technology has sobered considerably since its early euphoria.
Yet despite mounting public backlash, global AI usage has surged to record highs. OpenAI's ChatGPT reached one billion monthly app users, or MAUs, in May, according to recent estimates from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Other AI apps including Anthropic's Claude made triple-digit year-over-year percentage gains in users, the data company said.
With its billion-MAU figure — achieved roughly 3.5 years after its November 2022 launch — ChatGPT became the fastest app ever to reach the milestone, surpassing the previous record set by Google Maps, which took around five years after launch to reach the same volume of usage, Sensor Tower said.
OpenAI, which did not respond to CNBC's requests for comment, said in February that ChatGPT saw more than 900 million weekly active users across web and mobile platforms and claimed it had more than six times the monthly web visits and mobile sessions of the next largest AI platform.
According to Sensor Tower, OpenAI's market-leading large language model was trailed by offerings from its competitors, including Google's Gemini, ByteDance's Doubao and its overseas variant Dola, as well as Claude from rival developer Anthropic.
But while ChatGPT enjoys a significant lead in monthly users, rival models are quickly catching up. Monthly usage of Claude and Meta AI respectively rose by 640% and 973% year-on-year, compared to ChatGPT's 62%, per Sensor Tower estimates.
Despite its "early mover advantage," usage of ChatGPT's competition has grown on tangible model improvements, as well as more positive market sentiment, Abe Yousef, Sensor Tower's senior insights analyst, told CNBC.
Yousef cited OpenAI's February deal with the U.S. Department of Defense to deploy its models on classified Pentagon networks as an instance where public unease drove usership.
ChatGPT uninstalls surged around 295% day-on-day on Feb. 28 — the day after OpenAI announced its Pentagon agreement, according to Sensor Tower data.
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