At the TED 2025 conference, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made a striking revelation: nearly 10 per cent of the global population now uses ChatGPT. In a conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson, Altman shared that the platform’s user base has doubled in just a matter of weeks, a milestone fueled by rapid adoption and growing global interest. “Something like 10 per cent of the world uses our systems now—a lot,” he said, adding, “It’s growing really fast.”
According to estimates, this surge places ChatGPT’s user base at around 800 million, a significant jump from the 300 million weekly active users reported in December 2024. The turning point came with the launch of OpenAI’s new image generation tool for GPT-4o, allowing users to create visuals directly from the chatbot interface.
Within the first week of release, the tool saw 130 million users generate more than 700 million images, highlighting not only demand for AI-generated visuals but also the sheer scale at which OpenAI’s innovations are being adopted. OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap called it a “very crazy first week for images in ChatGPT” and named India as the platform’s fastest growing market.
The image tool also sparked a viral trend where users created artwork in a Studio Ghibli-inspired style. Even tech leaders like Altman and Elon Musk participated. However, this surge in creative AI use raised questions about copyright, prompting Altman to assure users that OpenAI is working on solutions—including future systems that could automatically compensate artists when their work influences AI output.
As AI adoption accelerates, Altman addressed the elephant in the room: job disruption. He urged people to see AI as an opportunity rather than a threat, suggesting that while expectations may rise, AI’s capabilities will empower people to achieve more with less effort.
OpenAI’s momentum shows no signs of slowing down. From a powerful chatbot to a global creative engine, ChatGPT’s reach is redefining how the world engages with artificial intelligence.
