Public Outrage: OpenAI's Military Involvement Sparks a "Uninstallation Surge"

Lately, global AI giant OpenAI announced a deep cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), officially deploying its AI models into highly classified military networks. This news triggered strong user backlash across the U.S., and a campaign to "boycott" ChatGPT is rapidly spreading.

According to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, on February 28, 2026, the day OpenAI officially announced the agreement, the uninstallation rate of the ChatGPT mobile app in the U.S. market surged by 295% compared to the previous day. By comparison, the average daily uninstallation rate for the app had been around 9% in the previous month. Users expressed their deep concern about the military use of AI technology through large-scale "uninstallation" actions.

Reputation Collapse: One-Star Reviews Flood In

In addition to the widespread uninstallations, ChatGPT's app store rating also suffered a sharp decline. Data shows that within 48 hours after the agreement was announced, one-star reviews for ChatGPT increased by 775%, while five-star ratings dropped by 50%.

Many users left comments in the review section saying, "AI should be used to benefit humanity, not assist in warfare." Some even compared it to an early version of the "Skynet" from the movie. Although OpenAI CEO Sam Altman later explained on social media that this collaboration had extremely strict ethical boundaries and safety guidelines, and admitted the initial announcement was "hasty and opportunistic," it still failed to calm public anger.

Industry Shift: Competitor Anthropic Unexpectedly "Wins"

During this public relations storm, OpenAI's main competitor, Anthropic, unexpectedly became the biggest winner. Because Anthropic publicly refused similar Department of Defense bids and insisted that AI should not be used for surveillance or autonomous weapons systems, its AI application Claude saw a sharp increase in downloads on the U.S. App Store, and for the first time on February 28, it topped the free app chart in the U.S.

Currently, OpenAI is urgently updating its terms of agreement, explicitly prohibiting the use of its technology for mass surveillance of U.S. citizens. However, this "trust crisis" is no longer just about data—it is a collective reflection by the public on the ethical boundaries of AI in the era of large models.

Would you like me to track in real-time the latest revised "military ethics guidelines" released by OpenAI regarding this crisis, or see which new AI platforms are currently attracting the most users under the #QuitGPT tag?