As schools reopen for the new academic year, the latest data suggests a noteworthy trend: OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT’s predominant use as a tool for homework assistance.

What Happened: ChatGPT’s usage experienced a significant decline over the summer. This unexpected dip sparked widespread speculation about the sudden drop in interest in what was once hailed as a revolutionary tech product.

While some said that the decreasing traffic could result from the initial novelty of chatGPT wearing off, others suggested that the release of the app on the iOS and Android systems might be diverting the traffic.

One theory that has gained traction suggests that the decline is related to the timing of the summer break. It appears that many students found ChatGPT particularly useful for research or, more bluntly, for cheating on homework assignments.

The latest data from Similarweb, tracking weekly visits to OpenAI’s ChatGPT website, confirms this theory. As schools reopened and students returned to their studies, traffic to the ChatGPT website saw a substantial uptick, reported Business Insider.

Why It’s Important: This rebound in ChatGPT usage may be reassuring for OpenAI, but it also raises questions about the platform’s long-term viability and the breadth of its use cases.

Is ChatGPT’s resurgence merely a reflection of its usage as an academic tool, or does it hint at a limited range of use cases for AI-powered chatbots?

Meanwhile, these chatbot parents, including OpenAI, are yet to develop reliable tools to distinguish between AI-generated and human-generated content.

In July earlier this year, OpenAI’s much-talked-about classifier was discontinued after the company acknowledged its remarkably low accuracy rate.

Previously, in January, the New York City Department of Education prohibited teachers and students from accessing ChatGPT, addressing concerns about the technology fostering dishonesty and plagiarism.