It’s never a good time for a major outage, but when it happens just after a huge update—well, that’s when things get really interesting. On the evening of December 11, 2023, OpenAI’s popular AI assistant, ChatGPT, went down globally, sending waves of frustration through its 200 million active users. The outage occurred around 11:07 PM UTC and lasted for hours, causing disruptions across various platforms. But here’s the kicker: this downtime coincided with a major update from Apple, which integrated ChatGPT into Siri for the first time. Was the outage a fluke? Or was there more to this timing than meets the eye?
Let’s break down what happened, why it mattered, and what OpenAI had to say about it.
A Double Whammy: ChatGPT’s Outage and Siri’s Big Update
The timing of the outage could not have been worse. On the same day ChatGPT was rolled out as part of Apple’s Siri update—allowing Siri to tap into the power of ChatGPT to answer more complex queries—users worldwide began to experience issues with the AI service.
Around 11:07 PM UTC, users began reporting that they couldn’t access ChatGPT, either on its standalone platform or through its API. By the time the clock struck midnight, OpenAI had acknowledged the issue and started working on a fix. A few hours later, the company posted a message on X (formerly Twitter) apologizing for the inconvenience:
“We’re experiencing an outage right now. We have identified the issue and are working to roll out a fix.”
What Caused the Outage?
While OpenAI didn’t immediately provide a full explanation, it did offer a clue as to what went wrong. According to the company, a “configuration change” caused a number of its servers to go offline, leading to the widespread disruption. As a result, users trying to access ChatGPT were greeted with a message saying, “ChatGPT is currently unavailable,” alongside the reassuring note that the team was working to resolve the issue.
But the outage wasn’t just limited to ChatGPT. OpenAI’s other products, like its video generation model Sora, were also impacted by the same technical hiccup. It wasn’t just an inconvenience—it was a full-on disruption of OpenAI’s ecosystem, affecting both individual users and developers relying on its API.
The Global Rollback: When Did ChatGPT Come Back Online?
By 3:53 AM UTC on December 12, OpenAI reported that things were looking better, with ChatGPT and Sora traffic “largely recovered.” However, for many users, the recovery wasn’t immediate. Reports of issues peaked in the 15 minutes following the initial outage, with over 1,500 users hitting Downdetector to report problems in real-time.
At its worst, ChatGPT experienced a major surge of complaints, with users unable to access the platform for up to 30 minutes before the issue started to resolve itself. The outage lasted for several hours, with recovery gradually rolling out across regions. By the time Australia’s users were able to access the service again, the dust was beginning to settle, but it was a tense few hours for users waiting for a fix.
Siri Gets Smarter, But It Came at a Cost
The outage’s timing was especially notable because it occurred right after ChatGPT had been integrated into Apple’s Siri. This integration allowed Siri to access ChatGPT’s vast knowledge base to answer more complex requests, like explaining documents or even answering questions about photos. Users with iPhone 15 models and newer could start using this feature immediately, but as it turns out, the big launch came with a few growing pains.
As Apple unveiled the new features, which leveraged the power of OpenAI’s AI to enhance Siri’s responses, many users experienced delays, glitches, and interruptions. The hope was that Siri would evolve into a more intelligent assistant by tapping into ChatGPT’s conversational abilities. But with the global outage, those ambitions were put on hold for a brief, frustrating period.
ChatGPT’s Recent Streak of Outages: A Bigger Issue?
This latest downtime wasn’t the first time ChatGPT had experienced significant outages. In fact, it marked the fourth major network failure for the platform in recent months. Previously, ChatGPT went down during a series of outages in June and August, raising questions about the stability of the system, especially as OpenAI’s user base continues to grow.
For a platform with over 200 million active users, repeated disruptions are a cause for concern. While these incidents seem to be relatively short-lived, each one serves as a reminder that the infrastructure behind these AI systems is still very much in development.
The timing of this outage—especially with the integration into Apple’s Siri—raises even more questions. Did the integration introduce unexpected challenges? Or was the outage purely a result of a configuration issue? OpenAI has yet to clarify, but given the rapid response and restoration of service, it seems likely that the team is taking the matter seriously.
Meta Faces Its Own Outage Drama
It wasn’t just OpenAI dealing with technical difficulties on December 11. Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, also experienced issues that day. Although Meta’s outage wasn’t as widespread or long-lasting, it still affected a large number of users, particularly those trying to access their social feeds. By 10:26 PM UTC, Meta had resolved “99% of the issues” and was finishing up its final checks.
Moving Forward: Lessons Learned and What’s Next for OpenAI
For now, OpenAI has assured users that it is working to improve the stability of its systems, and the December 11 outage seems to have been resolved. However, with the platform’s rapid growth and the increasing number of services relying on ChatGPT, these kinds of technical hiccups are likely to become more common—at least until OpenAI optimizes its infrastructure.
For users, it’s a reminder of the growing pains that come with cutting-edge technology. Integrating AI tools into major platforms like Siri is a huge leap forward, but it also presents new challenges. While ChatGPT’s downtime was unfortunate, it seems to be just a small bump in the road for a technology that continues to evolve rapidly.
As for Apple’s Siri, we can expect more improvements to come, and hopefully fewer interruptions. The integration of ChatGPT into Siri is a sign of things to come—intelligent, context-aware AI assistants that go beyond simple queries and take on more complex tasks. For now, users just need to be patient, as the future of AI continues to unfold.
