'QuitGPT' Campaign Wants You To Ditch ChatGPT Over OpenAI's Ties To Trump, ICE

A group of activists has kicked off a “QuitGPT” campaign that’s calling for a boycott of OpenAI and ChatGPT over the company’s ties to the Trump administration.

The US-focused campaign at quitgpt.org emerged late last month, and has attracted sign-ups or social media shares from over 700,000 supporters, the site says, up from about 112,000 a week ago. Actor Mark Ruffalo, for example, posted his support on Instagram, and the post has been liked over 1.6 million times. Still, that’s a small slice of ChatGPT’s 800+ million users.

“ChatGPT is Trump’s biggest donor, and ICE uses ChatGPT. It’s time to Quit,” the campaign’s site says, which also urges users to cancel their ChatGPT Plus subscriptions.

The QuitGPT campaign points to a campaign finance filing that shows OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife donated $25 million to the MAGA Inc. political action committee for President Trump in September.

After Trump won, Brockman tweeted: “I’m encouraged by the tech-forwardness of [Trump’s] campaign. Leading in technology generally—and AI in particular—is how America can continue to lead the world and protect democratic values.” He has since appeared at the White House for the Project Stargate announcement, among other events.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, as did Tim Cook, Amazon, Google, and Meta. Several tech companies donated to the White House ballroom.

QuitGPT also notes that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly uses a resume-screening tool that relies on OpenAI’s GPT-4 model.

The creators of QuitGPT describe themselves as “a group of democracy activists that are gravely concerned about AI companies contributing to the rise of authoritarianism in the US.”

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Many of the campaign’s founders appear to be anonymous. But MIT Technology Review reports that they include “dozens of left-leaning teens and twentysomethings scattered across the US,” such as pro-democracy organizers, climate activists, and cyber libertarians. However, one founder wished to remain anonymous, citing how OpenAI has subpoenaed nonprofits in its case against Elon Musk, allegedly to silence them.

The campaign comes as ChatGPT has lost users to rival services, especially Google’s Gemini. Although ChatGPT still dominates in user traffic, its market share eroded in recent months, according to data from Similarweb.

(Credit: Similarweb)

In addition, OpenAI has been sued over claims that its chatbot can encourage suicide and other mental health problems. Others are upset over OpenAI integrating ads into ChatGPT or retiring older models without recourse. OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.