ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/02/chatgpt-uninstalls-surged-by-295-after-dod-deal/

S. app uninstalls of ChatGPT’s mobile app jumped 295% day-over-day on Saturday, February 28, as consumers responded to the news of OpenAI’s deal with the Department of Defense (DoD), which has been rebranded under the Trump administration as the Department of War.

This data, which comes from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower, represents a sizable increase compared with ChatGPT’s typical day-over-day uninstall rate of 9%, as measured over the past 30 days.

Meanwhile, U.S. downloads for OpenAI competitor Anthropic’s Claude jumped up by 37% day-over-day on Friday, February 27, and 51% as of Saturday, February 28, after the company announced that it would not partner with the U.S. defense department. Anthropic said it was not able to agree on the deal terms over concerns that AI would be used to surveil Americans and be used in fully autonomous weaponry, which AI is not yet ready to do safely.

615 points · 48 comments · view on lemmy.world

48 Comments

magnetosphere@fedia.io · 74 pts · 189d (2 replies)

Good. Fuck ‘em.

IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com · 13 pts · 189d (1 reply)

Fuck the game up. America makes terrorists and school shooters, and it's often on purpose, so be careful and understand the game.

pigeonofparadise@lemmy.org · -2 pts · 189d
[ removed ]
nialv7@lemmy.world · 54 pts · 189d (4 replies)

I am not subscribed to openai. Is there a way for me to not subscribe even harder?

vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 189d (3 replies)

I'd say pirate it but well cloud based and all kinda takes the wind from those sails.

Xylight@lemdro.id · 16 pts · 189d (2 replies)

ai piracy is still possible! Break into the openai servers and yoink the gpt 5.2 weights. and then publish them

ultrafastsloth@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 189d

Why would you break in, the AI is Open, is in the name. Just walk in duh

Electricd@lemmybefree.net · 0 pts · 189d

Why bother when you have GLM 5.0 😎

FosterMolasses@leminal.space · 38 pts · 189d (2 replies)

You guys have it installed on your phone?? Lord in heaven

Why not just fedex Altman your SSN and mother's maiden name to save yourself the trouble lmfao

FatVegan@leminal.space · 7 pts · 189d (1 reply)

People's phones are my nightmare. I don't want to know and i don't want to see

cmbabul@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 189d

Whenever I accidentally see someone else’s phone it haunts me

NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 189d

What really sucks is Google is likely to remove all those 1 star reviews, they've done it before when shit like this happens.

Edit: i feel like a good review could be...

1 star. By using this service you'll be helping ChatGPT autonomously surveil you through the government and murder you with robots without any human in the loop. Don't let ChatGPT kill you!

AlecSadler@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 34 pts · 189d (1 reply)

I convinced two friends to cancel their monthly sub. I guess that's something.

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 189d

Every little bit counts

RustyShackleford@piefed.social · 33 pts · 189d

Electricd@lemmybefree.net · 21 pts · 189d (6 replies)

Whenever I see a % data, I always believe the actual amount is really low. It just means on Saturday there were 4x the amount of uninstalls compared to every other day, which doesn’t seem much at all

pupbiru@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 189d (4 replies)

it’s enough to be indicative

Electricd@lemmybefree.net · 1 pts · 189d (3 replies)

Only if you have the base amount. And still, for a company of this size, it’s not much

pupbiru@aussie.zone · -1 pts · 189d (2 replies)

% is % is %… absolutes are completely irrelevant… 1m people uninstalling facebook is less relevant than 100 people uninstalling

a large % change is always relevant no matter the company size. that’s the whole point

village604@adultswim.fan · 3 pts · 189d

For statistics like this you need more information to know whether it's significant. If they have 100m users and 5 people uninstall the app daily, it's not going to make any difference if that number goes up to 15 uninstalls for one day.

Electricd@lemmybefree.net · 2 pts · 188d

It’s not a % change of the entire user base, it’s a % change over the uninstalls. If there are 100 uninstalls per day for example, even a 2000% increase for a day is worthless

And even then, we probably need the number of installs per day to understand the actual impact

sircac@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 189d

Indeed, without an error estimated from fluctuations, etc I cannot conclude how significative it was such...

hitmyspot@aussie.zone · 19 pts · 189d (5 replies)

I'm surprised so many people were paying for it. Seems like more people want less ai not more these days.

SunshineJogger@feddit.org · 13 pts · 189d (1 reply)

Don't forget we are in a perception bubble here.

hitmyspot@aussie.zone · 5 pts · 189d

Yes, but of that many people are already paying and they are still burning through billions, it's even more of a bubble than I thought. The chance of.profitability with direct to consumer is less likely.

So clearly it will be mainly corporate and enshittified versions going forward.

Electricd@lemmybefree.net · 10 pts · 189d

People want less forced AI, but most people are fine with using it whenever they want

I’m one of them

But then I’m a student and work part time as a dev so I see the population that pretty much uses GenAI the most

Eggyhead@lemmings.world · 8 pts · 189d

Many of us are in our own little bubble. Nearly all regular folk use AI instead of Google now.

Witchfire@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 189d

Some people are really deep in the sauce

sveltecider@lemmy.ca · 19 pts · 189d (2 replies)

I didn’t have a subscription but I still deleted my account.

cutemarshmallow@europe.pub · 10 pts · 189d

How people have one is beyond me, both from a moral and a financial point of view.

desmosthenes@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 189d

same

ramenshaman@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 189d

I'm-doing-my-part.gif

(I seem to have lost the ability to embed gifs.)

SunshineJogger@feddit.org · 6 pts · 189d

I've switched to Mistral. It's not quite on the same level of performance but certainly worth not being on a American dubious setup.

wheezy@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 189d

Deepseek. Take my data Xi. Please liberate us from our pedophilic ruling class. Please bring us high speed rail. Amen.

akilou@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 189d

But the fewer people who use it the less money they'll lose

collectif_imaginaire@piefed.social · 5 pts · 189d

I did it too and for that reason (dod contract)

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 188d
Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 189d (4 replies)

How are they tracking uninstalls?

Ste41th@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 189d (3 replies)

Probably play store / app store metrics

Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 189d (2 replies)

I had no idea that data was public

Fedizen@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 189d

Its almost always public when it comes to google.

Ste41th@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 189d

I believe third party analytic tools and other forms of research help news agencies report this kinda stuff, but also for the likes of google they could just probably buy the data from them

expatriado@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 189d

i don't have app, but may install to prop the uninstall numbers

iglou@programming.dev · 2 pts · 188d

Anthropic said it was not able to agree on the deal terms over concerns that AI would be used to surveil Americans and be used in fully autonomous weaponry, which AI is not yet ready to do safely.

To add to this, Anthropic also said (in other words I do not recall) that even if AI could do it safely, there would be ethical concerns about oversight.

vane@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 189d
etchinghillside@reddthat.com · -1 pts · 189d

Ehhh. If they weren’t paying customers then it’ll certainly help their burn rate.

doesit@sh.itjust.works · -6 pts · 189d (2 replies)

Copilot says these are ethical alternatives

blinfabian@feddit.nl · 8 pts · 189d (1 reply)

copilot isnt even recommending himself. he knows he sucks 😔

doesit@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 189d

It's dangerous when we start calling it a he/she.