ChatGPT Milestone, F**Ked Up Attribution, Siri's AI Future

ChatGPT: 300 Million Weekly Users

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told a conference audience yesterday that the pace of AI development is "slowing down" but added, "Search itself will continue to change profoundly in 2025." That could be a promise or simply a bland PR statement. But let's assume it's true. Without competition from ChatGPT, the Google UI probably wouldn't be changing "profoundly" – although Google had already been trying to address Gen Z user defections by "transforming the SERP into an endless stream of visual ideas." It's pretty clear that competitive pressure and revenue imperatives are driving Google search-product development, much more than consumer utility. For its part, ChatGPT's Sam Altman spoke at the same conference and announced that ChatGPT now had 300 million weekly active users. That's up from 200 million in August, 100 million more in three months. OpenAI is targeting a billion users by the end of 2025. That's ambitious but probably not out of the question. To get there the company will need to keep improving search results, including and especially in local. Today, according to Dialog survey data, Google is perceived by consumers as a more reliable information source vs. AI across categories. Asked “If you had to choose only one of [11 search and AI tools] for all your research and purchase decision-making needs, which would it be?," Google was the winner. But ChatGPT came in second.