I was working on a story that was going to lead off today’s posts and wanted ChatGPT to generate a picture. Then, ChatGPT goes down.

As I often do for my blog posts, I started to ask GPT-4o’s Image Creator Powered by DALL-E to create an image for that post. This was about 5:15pm CT yesterday. Suddenly, ChatGPT stops responding. At first, the site doesn’t respond at all. I take a break and go run an errand. When I get back (about 6:30pm) and try again, I see this message:

So, I check the site Downdetector (which is a great site for checking on issues with a site) and I see that OpenAI outages start spiking at about 5:11pm CT when ChatGPT goes down:

The report of outages spikes around 5:40pm CT with 28,511 outage reports. While the number of outage reports goes down (presumably because users have become aware of the outage), ChatGPT remains offline.

At 6:15pm CT, OpenAI posts on X: “We’re experiencing an outage right now. We have identified the issue and are working to roll out a fix. Sorry and we’ll keep you updated!” 1.2 million people see that post in about 3 hours.

Of course, the comments are littered with providers of other AI models saying you should move to their platform (because this would never happen there). 😉

Perhaps the best part of OpenAI’s response is for those users who were trying to log in. This is the message those users are getting when ChatGPT goes down:

“ChatGPT is at capacity right now.

As you read this message, please take a moment to pause and breathe. Notice the sensations in your body and the rhythm of your breath. Remind yourself that you are not alone in wanting to try out ChatGPT. Many others are interested in it as well. Be patient and know that the website is doing its best to accommodate everyone. Trust that the right time for you to try ChatGPT will come. In the meantime, continue to focus on your breath and stay present in the moment.”

So, ChatGPT goes down and OpenAI reminds us to “pause and breathe” (at least those who are trying to log in). We’re not that panicked – are we? 😨

UPDATE: ChatGPT back up and running at 8:31pm CT (presumably for good – if not, I’m tired of tracking it). Of course, there’s no explanation from OpenAI (there never is), but all is right with the world! You can resume not breathing now… 🤣

So, what do you think? Can you live without ChatGPT, even for a couple of hours? If not, you should “pause and breathe”! 🤣 Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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