OpenAI almost shipped ChatGPT with a different name — before a late-night twist

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In the previous year, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, suggested that OpenAI had approximately two years without significant competition in the development of ChatGPT-like technologies. Although this statement can be debated, due to common usage, people often link generative AI with ChatGPT, implying that these terms might as well be interchangeable.

It’s no shock that the numbers are high. In March alone, ChatGPT boasted around 600 million monthly active users. What’s intriguing is that this AI-driven chatbot managed to onboard a million new users within just an hour.

The increase in popularity can be traced back to OpenAI unveiling its latest GPT-4o image generator, leading to the widespread sharing of “Ghibli” memes across various social media platforms. Sam Altman described this surge as a “biblical level demand,” implying that he had never encountered anything quite like it before.

However, it’s interesting to note that if things had gone differently, today’s conversation might have been quite distinct, particularly regarding ChatGPT. Before its release in November 2022, it was disclosed by Nick Turley, the lead at OpenAI for ChatGPT, that they nearly introduced the tool under a different name initially.

In their recent discussion on the OpenAI podcast, Nick Turley and the Chief Research Officer, Mark Chen, disclosed that the tool was nearly launched under the name “Chat with GPT-3.5,” according to a report by Business Insider.

Originally, it was planned as a chat with GPT-3.5, but in a last-minute change, we decided to streamline the title. We found that the original name was difficult to pronounce, so we opted for a more user-friendly alternative.

Instead, the company ultimately chose ChatGPT, a much more straightforward option than their initial plans. Notably, ChatGPT represents “Generative Pre-trained Transformer” as its abbreviation.

Andrew Mayne, who hosts the OpenAI podcast and used to communicate science, shared an interesting tidbit: some individuals within the company anticipated the product’s name would carry significant weight. However, he emphasized that while the product’s core functions have mostly stayed the same as previous versions, it now boasts a more intuitive user interface for easier use.

We’ve incorporated the interface into this, making it more intuitive and reducing the need for frequent prompts.

A study conducted by aitools.xyy found that ChatGPT is significantly more widely used than Microsoft Copilot, even though they both rely on similar technology and AI for their functions. By February 2025, ChatGPT was visited over 173.3 million times daily in the U.S., while Microsoft Copilot attracted approximately 98.9 million visitors monthly.

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2025-07-04 13:09