The Sundarban Claude overtakes ChatGPT as top free app amid AI ethics backlash
Revealed Mar 2, 2026, 6:42 PM EST
Sam Hill is a journalist dwelling in Portland, Oregon. He’s dabbled in many industries, beforehand writing about industrial fishing, the drone exchange, aquaculture, video games, and information superhighway custom.
He moved from Unusual England to the Pacific Northwest in 2019 to interrupt out the snow and fell in admire with the West Coast.
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The AI chatbot Claude has leapfrogged OpenAI’s ChatGPT to change into doubtlessly the most downloaded free app on Apple’s U.S. App Retailer. The climb comes amid rising public scrutiny of ChatGPT following OpenAI’s announcement that it would possibly collaborate with the U.S. Division of Defense to deploy AI technology on classified networks.
Earlier this week, President Trump directed all federal agencies to without lengthen close the utilization of any AI technology from Anthropic, the company on the assist of Claude. The drawl followed a week-prolonged standoff by which the administration sought to have Anthropic enable its technology to toughen mass home surveillance and completely independent navy weapons — two uses the company had refused to approve.
Why some users are leaving ChatGPT
To articulate OpenAI’s authorities contract, some are leaving the platform for other AI devices
Credit: Gavin Phillips/MakeUseOf
As soon as Anthropic left the conversation, OpenAI stepped in, and the backlash has been swift — users are leaping ship from ChatGPT to other AI tools in what can feel treasure a articulate. Social media platforms, forums, and app opinions imprint many switching from ChatGPT to Claude, citing concerns over the moral implications of how AI will likely be deployed.
“QuitGPT” has emerged as doubtlessly the most up-to-date expression of a rising wave of users and activists leaving on the assist of the chatbot. In most up-to-date weeks, Reddit has been flooded with posts from folks sharing their experiences quitting ChatGPT. The most up-to-date chapter of frustration with OpenAI protection outcry over other concerns treasure OpenAI President Greg Brockman made a $25 million private donation to a talented-Trump gigantic PAC or ICE the utilization of GPT-4–powered tools in hiring and screening. In maintaining with a most up-to-date characterize from Tom’s Information, 700,000 users are reportedly ditching ChatGPT for other tools.
What AI choices are folks the utilization of?
For many users leaving ChatGPT, Claude has change into the high-tail-to replace — both for its performance and its principled stance.
In maintaining with Mashable, an Anthropic spokesperson said that free users of Claude have grown by greater than 60% since January, every day signups have tripled since November — setting recent data every day this week — and paid subscriptions have greater than doubled this twelve months. The spokesperson added that Claude was ranked #42 within the U.S. App Retailer before Trim Bowl LX and has since climbed into the discontinue 10.
Outside of doubtlessly the most up-to-date political and ethical controversies, many users prefer Claude over ChatGPT for its greater context window, versatile writing styles, and superior information visualization and artifact tools.
Masses of AI chatbots are also attracting users. Google’s Gemini is widespread for these embedded within the Google ecosystem, offering deep integration with Gmail, Medical doctors, and Force, alongside with image and track generation choices in chat. Perplexity appeals to developers and technical users taking a sight for raw reasoning performance and decrease API costs.
At some level of the board, the trend reveals that patrons are actively weighing now not factual choices, however ethics and governance when deciding on their AI tools — a shift that has made the market more aggressive than ever.
