As OpenAI reportedly prepares an IPO, what do the public make of ChatGPT?

OpenAI has seldom been out of the news since it released ChatGPT in 2022. While the company has received a regular stream of positive writeups for its technological advances, there have been concerns about its potential impact on privacy, intellectual property, and its organisational structure (recently the subject of a high-profile court battle between CEO Sam Altman and SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk).

With news recently breaking that OpenAI is set to launch an IPO, what does the UK public think of the organisation? YouGov AI Index data shows that, despite the aforementioned controversies, ChatGPT is better regarded than the average AI brand in almost every respect. Among consumers who are aware of ChatGPT, the platform’s Index scores (a measure of brand health that averages several metrics) sit at 5.3; among aware consumers of the average AI brand scores are -4.0. A gap of 9.3 points, and one that only widens when we look at some of the underlying measures.

Impression scores, which measure general positive or negative sentiment, are 10.7; for AI brands, UK scores sit at -3.6. Recommend scores, which measure consumer advocacy, are at 10.1 among aware consumers; the average for ChatGPT’s competitors is -6.0.

Misinformation is a key concern among AI sceptics, with hallucinations a major concern for most LLM use cases. This is an area where ChatGPT’s brand perceptions are negative, but even here, it outperforms other AI brands: its Quality score metric, which measures consumer perceptions of accuracy, is -4.5, compared to. -9.9 for the sector. It’s a similar story with Reputation scores, which measure consumer trust. ChatGPT’s scores are a negative -36.7, while the wider industry averages at -39.9.

Overall, whatever the headlines are saying, and whatever trust issues are affecting the industry, it appears that ChatGPT remains a strong and well-liked AI brand among UK consumers.

This article originally appeared in City A.M.