On February 28, immediately following U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, the number of deletions for OpenAI’s artificial intelligence (AI) model ChatGPT mobile app skyrocketed by 295% compared to the previous day. Meanwhile, downloads for its competitor Anthropic’s Claude app have been steadily increasing.
On Monday, U.S. tech news outlet TechCrunch reported this information, citing data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. This surge represents a substantial increase compared to ChatGPT’s typical daily deletion rate of 9% over the past 30 days.
In contrast, Claude’s mobile app downloads increased by 37% on February 27 and 51% on February 28 compared to the previous day. After reaching the top spot in the U.S. App Store on February 28, it has maintained that position through Monday.
Furthermore, Claude has claimed the number one spot among free apps in app stores across six countries, including Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland.
This trend appears to be linked to Anthropic’s firm stance against the U.S. Department of Defense’s pressure to modify its policies for unrestricted military use of Claude.
On February 27, Anthropic Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dario Amodei stated that using such systems for large-scale domestic surveillance is incompatible with democratic values, adding that “in some limited cases, it believes AI can undermine rather than uphold democratic values.
On the same day, former President Donald Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that he would direct all federal agencies to immediately cease using Anthropic’s technology. In contrast, OpenAI had reached an agreement with the Department of Defense regarding the use of its AI model.
Following this news, downloads of the ChatGPT mobile app in the U.S. decreased by 13% on April 28 and by 5% on March 1, contrasting with a 14% increase on February 27, before the announcement of the agreement.
The number of one-star reviews for ChatGPT also saw a dramatic increase, rising by 775% on February 28 and by 100% on March 1, while five-star reviews dropped by 50%, reflecting a deteriorating consumer sentiment.
However, another market intelligence firm, SimilarWeb, noted that downloads of Claude in the U.S. over the past week were about 20 times higher than in January, cautioning that this surge might be attributed to factors beyond political issues.