OpenAI’s ChatGPT is experiencing more outages, as detailed in the company’s incident report. It also affects the API, Labs, and Playground. The incident began at 12:03 PM PST.
OpenAI is implementing a fix for the issue and will release updates as they become available. Until then, even ChatGPT Plus users are receiving errors of exceptionally high demand.
Screenshot from ChatGPT, November 2023Some speculated the issue was due to a DDoS attack.
OpenAI currently experiencing (its first?) major outage. Anonymous Sudan hackers are claiming it’s them. They started posting about their DDoS attack as servers went down. It’s down for me in the UK. pic.twitter.com/gr1GwbruJf
— Joe Tidy (@joetidy) November 8, 2023
Earlier this morning, the network experienced a two hour outage.
Screenshot from OpenAI, November 2023The issues began on November 7, when partial outages were noted, and continued into the early hours of November 8, causing high error rates and affecting all services.
OpenAI’s engineering team responded promptly, implementing a series of fixes to resolve the issues.
As ChatGPT users navigate to alternatives like Google Bard, they found it too was having issues.
Screenshot from Google, November 2023The first signs of trouble for ChatGPT were reported on November 7 at 19:52 PM PST, with OpenAI announcing an investigation into the partial outage affecting both ChatGPT and its API.
A fix was put in place, which seemed to restore services temporarily. However, the problem recurred, and the team had to continue their efforts to stabilize the system.
On November 8, OpenAI provided updates as the situation progressed, identifying the problem and working on remediation from as early as 6:02 AM PST.
By 7:33 AM PST, a solution had been implemented, and 13 minutes later, OpenAI reported a return to normal service functionality.
However, some users who were logged out before the incidents began are still not able to login with the following error message: “Oops! We ran into an issue while signing you in, please take a break and try again soon.”
Screenshot from ChatGPT, November 2023The ChatGPT iOS app seems to be working properly, while the desktop UI is still finicky.
This incident marks a rare disruption in OpenAI’s typically reliable services.
The quick response of the OpenAI engineering team typically minimizes the duration of such outages, but the event underscores the complexities inherent in maintaining large-scale AI services.
The resolution of this outage will be particularly relevant to those who rely heavily on stable AI tools for content creation, data analysis, and automated customer service.
The robustness of these systems is crucial for the seamless operation of marketing strategies and online engagement.
For those who depend on AI-driven tools, the OpenAI outages are a reminder of the importance of having contingency plans in place for unexpected downtime. And backups for those in case they are down too.
Featured image: Vitor Miranda/Shutterstock
