--- title: "OpenAI Says It Appears to Have Been Attacked" description: "Denial of Service OpenAI is struggling to keep its ChatGPT service online. Outages have been plaguing users of the popular AI chatbot for around 24 now. Users are reporting not being able to login while others are greeted with the message: \"ChatGPT is at capacity right now.\" In its most recent update, posted late Wednesday […]" date: "2023-11-09" modified: "2023-11-09" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-ddos" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "chatgpt" - "ddos" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI Says It Appears to Have Been Attacked ![In its most recent update, OpenAI blamed a possible cyberattack for the "periodic outages" affecting its ChatGPT chatbot.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Denial of Service OpenAI is struggling to keep its ChatGPT service online. Outages have been plaguing users of the popular AI chatbot for the past day or so. Users are reporting not being able to login, while others are greeted with the message that "ChatGPT is at capacity right now." In its [most recent update](), posted late Wednesday evening, OpenAI blamed a possible cyberattack for the "periodic outages," claiming they were triggered by an "abnormal traffic pattern reflective of a DDoS attack," referring to a distributed denial-of-service attack, which is when hackers target a server by overwhelming it with a flood of traffic. That's the last time we've heard from OpenAI regarding the outages and [according to Downdetector](), problems with the company's services are still ongoing at the time of writing. It's still unclear what the exact cause of the outages was. According to Telegram messages [reviewed by *TechCrunch*](), a hacktivist group called Anonymous Sudan, which is [linked to pro-Russian hacktivist collective Killnet](), took credit. At the end of the day, though, the purported hack highlights the kind of persistent infrastructural vulnerabilities that plague even the largest and most cutting-edge players on the internet: even if you're developing world-changing AI, it can clearly be hard to keep a website operational day-to-day. ## Exceeding Expectations As far as a motive goes, a member of the hacktivist group posted on Telegram that it was targeting ChatGPT due to it having a "general biasness \[sic\] towards Israel and against Palestine," [per *Forbes*](). OpenAI CEO Sam Altman initially blamed the outages on renewed interest following the company's [Monday announcement]() of new features including GPT-4 Turbo, its most powerful AI model yet, as well as tools allowing users to create personalized "GPT" AI models. "Usage of our new features from devday is far outpacing our expectations," Altman [tweeted]() Wednesday afternoon, roughly ten hours before the company blamed a possible DDoS attack. "There will likely be service instability in the short term due to load." Interestingly, it wasn't just OpenAI's ChatGPT that experienced outages on Wednesday. As[ *CNBC* reports](), Claude 2, a chatbot run by OpenAI's competitor Anthropic, also experienced issues. We still don't know if the two instances are linked to each other, but the timing is certainly suspect. Altman has yet to comment on the possible cyberattack — but a little transparency could go a long way, given the popularity of the company's chatbot. **More on ChatGPT:** *[AI Expert Says ChatGPT Is Way Stupider Than People Realize]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()