OpenAI has released its biggest analysis to date about the usage habits of ChatGPT. In a research paper courtesy of the company’s Economic Research team and Harvard economist David Deming, the company analyzed 1.5 million ChatGPT conversations, and it’s now shedding light on some interesting stats about how interactions with the AI chatbot unfold.
The who, why, and how much?
- As of July 2025, ChatGPT had over 700 million users exchanging 18 billion messages each week, or 2.5 billion messages per day. And it seems people are using ChatGPT for work-related assistance more than anything else.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends- “Writing is by far the most common work use, accounting for 42% of work-related messages overall and more than half of all messages for users in management and business occupations,” says the research paper.
- Compared to the early launch days, the gender gap has reversed, and more than half of users now have a female name. Additionally, nearly half of all ChatGPT users are under 26 years of age.
- Practical guidance, writing, and seeking information are three of the biggest discussion areas with ChatGPT, accounting for 78% of all exchanges. In 49% of the messages, users were asking (of messages are users asking ChatGPT for guidance, advice, or information), while 40% accounted for doing (tasks connected into workflow), and
A few surprises
- In the tech circle, it’s often said that programmers are at risk of losing their jobs to AI, more so than any other profession. Yet, questions about computer programming and coding only account for 4.2% of the analyzed chats.
Matheus Bertelli / Pexels- Over the past few weeks, ChatGPT’s negative impact and a few deadly incidents have resulted in hot debates, prompting the company to build parental controls and warning systems for guardians. Yet, Relationships and Personal Reflection messages only accounted for 1.9% of the assessed conversations.
- In only 1% of the analyzed conversations, users were expressing themselves to the AI chatbot. That’s pretty surprising, considering reports of how users can get sucked into romantic conversations with ChatGPT, a pattern that is even more evident with AI personality bots available on platforms such as Nomi, CharacterAI, and Replika.
ChatGPT could soon get parental controls, and every other AI must follow
Social media began as a tool for staying connected with the people you love. Over time, its harms were exposed, leading to these platforms building parental control tools. It seems a similar movement for AI chatbots, starting with the one that started it all — ChatGPT.
OpenAI has announced that it is exploring parental guardrails while using ChatGPT. “We will also soon introduce parental controls that give parents options to gain more insight into, and shape, how their teens use ChatGPT,” the company said in a blog post.
ChatGPT could be permanently changing how we speak
Just a few weeks ago, a paper from MIT stirred widespread debate on how using AI tools like ChatGPT was affecting our cognitive and critical thinking. The findings, though surprising, were not entirely unexpected. All the way back in 2023, Jeff Hancock, Professor of Communication at Stanford, revealed how AI chatter has already changed how we perceive language and their emotional impact.
“What we found is that even if you don’t use those AI-generated responses, they influence how you think,” he said, citing the example of smart reply templates in emails and messaging apps. Two years later, it seems that the signature language patterns of large language models such as ChatGPT are becoming a part of natural human conversations, too.
Elon Musk drags Apple to court for favoring ChatGPT a little too much
Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against Apple (once again), alleging that the company is suppressing rival AI products to favor ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. At the center of the lawsuit is Grok, an AI chatbot developed by Musk-led xAI, and how it has allegedly been throttled to favor ChatGPT on the App Store for exposure.
What is happening?
