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The use of generative AI in online search is continuing to explode, even while many people are dubious of the technology's reliability and trustworthiness.
According to data first reported by Axios, ChatGPT now responds to around 2.5 billion user queries daily, with 330 million of those (roughly 13%) originating in the US. That's around 912.5 billion queries per year.
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ChatGPT was also the most downloaded app in the world in April; in June, it clocked more App Store downloads than TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X combined.
All of those benchmarks have been reached since late 2022, when the app was first publicly launched. In less than three years, it has become an increasingly central part of how many people around the world engage with the internet. OpenAI's chatbot remains a long way from surpassing Google -- the search engine processes approximately 5 trillion queries annually -- but ChatGPT could soon catch up, especially once OpenAI launches its long-awaited web browser.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Perhaps the clearest evidence of the seismic effect ChatGPT is having within the online search industry has been Google's pivot, in response, to its own generative AI-powered features. AI Overviews has become the most conspicuous part of users' interaction with Google's search engine.
Google is also facing competition from Perplexity, an online search start-up with generative AI at its core. Earlier this month, Perplexity launched its own web browser, Comet, to compete with industry heavyweights like Chrome and Apple's Safari. AI Mode, a feature Google debuted in May that incorporates generative AI more deeply throughout the search experience, operates quite similarly to Perplexity.
Trustworthiness and AI
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