OpenAI reportedly discloses prompt volume: Over 330 million daily messages from US alone
The figures, reportedly shared directly withAxios, highlight the platform's widespread global adoption and growing user engagement.
Of the daily message volume, more than 330 million originate from the United States, while the remainder is generated by users in other parts of the world, adds the Axios report. The data provides insight into regional usage trends and the dominant share of American users in the chatbot's global traffic.
Reportedly, the company also stated that ChatGPT now boasts over 500 million weekly active users. A majority of them continue to access the service via its free tier. On mobile platforms, ChatGPT's popularity is evident with its Android application topping Google Play's 'Top Free' chart, while its iOS version holds the second spot in Apple's App Store under the same category.
Moreover, the report highlights that the timing of the disclosure coincides with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's planned visit to Washington, where he is expected to discuss the broader distribution of AI technologies. According to sources cited in the report, Altman is likely to focus on strategies to make AI tools accessible to a larger population, amid concerns over the centralisation of advanced technologies.
Meanwhile, the rapid growth of AI usage appears to be influencing broader internet behaviour. A separate analysis indicates that global search traffic declined by 15 per cent in June 2025 compared to the previous year. Furthermore, the rate of users not clicking through to news websites rose significantly, from 56 per cent in May 2024 to nearly 69 per cent in May 2025, suggesting a shift in how people consume information online.
The disclosure of prompt volumes and user data comes at a time when AI platforms are increasingly shaping digital interactions and content discovery, raising questions around the future of traditional web usage and online information ecosystems.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
26 minutes ago
- Mint
AI is wrecking an already fragile job market for college graduates
What do you hire a 22-year-old college graduate for these days? For a growing number of bosses, the answer is not much—AI can do the work instead. At Chicago recruiting firm Hirewell, marketing agency clients have all but stopped requesting entry-level staff—young grads once in high demand but whose work is now a 'home run" for AI, the firm's chief growth officer said. Dating app Grindr is hiring more seasoned engineers, forgoing some junior coders straight out of school, and CEO George Arison said companies are 'going to need less and less people at the bottom." Bill Balderaz, CEO of Columbus-based consulting firm Futurety, said he decided not to hire a summer intern this year, opting to run social-media copy through ChatGPT instead. Balderaz has urged his own kids to focus on jobs that require people skills and can't easily be automated. One is becoming a police officer. Having a good job 'guaranteed" after college, he said, 'I don't think that's an absolute truth today any more." There's long been an unwritten covenant between companies and new graduates: Entry-level employees, young and hungry, are willing to work hard for lower pay. Employers, in turn, provide training and experience to give young professionals a foothold in the job market, seeding the workforce of tomorrow. A yearslong white-collar hiring slump and recession worries have weakened that contract. Artificial intelligence now threatens to break it completely. That is ominous for college graduates looking for starter jobs, but also potentially a fundamental realignment in how the workforce is structured. As companies hire and train fewer young people, they may also be shrinking the pool of workers that will be ready to take on more responsibility in five or 10 years. Companies say they are already rethinking how to develop the next generation of talent. AI is accelerating trends that were already under way. With each new class after 2020, an ever-smaller share of graduates is landing jobs that require a bachelor's degree, according to a Burning Glass Institute analysis of labor data. That's happening across majors, from visual arts to engineering and mathematics. And unemployment among recent college graduates is now rising faster than for young adults with just high-school or associate degrees. Meanwhile, the sectors where graduate hiring has slowed the most—like information, finance, insurance and technical services—are still growing, a sign employers are becoming more efficient and see no immediate downside to hiring fewer inexperienced workers, said Matt Sigelman, Burning Glass's president. 'This is a more tectonic shift in the way employers are hiring," Sigelman said. 'Employers are significantly more likely to be letting go of their workers at the entry level—and in many cases are stepping up their hiring of more experienced professionals." After dancing around the issue in the 2½ years since ChatGPT's release upended the way almost all companies plan for their futures, CEOs are now talking openly about AI's immense capabilities likely leading to deep job cuts. Top executives at industry giants including Amazon and JPMorgan have said in recent weeks that they expect their workforces to shrink considerably. Ford CEO Jim Farley said he expects AI will replace half of the white-collar workforce in the U.S. For new graduates, this means not only are they competing for fewer slots but they are also increasingly up against junior workers who have been recently laid off. While many bosses say they remain committed to entry-level workers and understand their value, the data is increasingly stark: The overall national unemployment rate is at about 4%, but for new college graduates, it was 6.6% over the past 12 months ending in May. At large tech companies, which power much of the U.S. economy, the trend is perhaps more extreme. Venture-capital firm SignalFire found that among the 15 largest tech companies by market capitalization, the share of entry-level hires relative to total new hires has fallen by 50% since 2019. Recent graduates accounted for just 7% of new hires in 2024, down from 11% in 2022. A May report by the firm pointed to shrinking teams, fewer programs for new graduates and the growing influence of AI. Jadin Tate studied informatics at the University at Albany, hoping to land a job focused on improving the user experience of apps or websites. The week before graduation, his mentor leveled with him: That field is being taken over by AI. He warned it may not exist in five years. Tate has attended four conventions this year, networking with companies and asking if they are hiring. He has also applied to dozens of jobs, without success. Several of his college friends are working retail and food-service jobs as they apply for white-collar roles or before their start dates. 'It has been intimidating," Tate said of his job search. Indeed, recent graduates and students are fighting over a smaller number of positions geared at entry-level workers. There were 15% fewer job postings to the entry-level job-search platform Handshake this school year than last, while the number of applications per job rose 30%, according to the platform. Internship postings and applications saw similar trend lines between 2023 and 2025. The shift to AI presents huge risks to companies on skill development, even as they enjoy increased efficiency and productivity from fewer workers, said Chris Ernst, chief learning officer at the HR and finance software company Workday. Ernst said his research shows that workers mostly learn through experience, and then the remainder comes from relationships and development. When AI can produce in seconds a report that previously would have taken a young employee days or weeks—teaching that person critical skills along the way—companies will have to learn to train that person differently. 'Genuine learning, growth, adaptation—it comes from doing the hard work," he said. 'It's those moments of challenge, of hardship—that's the crucible where people grow, they change, they learn most profoundly." Among other things, Ernst said employers must be intentional about connecting young workers with colleagues and making time to mentor them. At the pipeline operator Williams, based in Tulsa, Okla., the company realized that thanks to AI young professionals were performing less of the drudgework like digging into corporate data that historically has taught them the core of the business. New employees at pipeline operator Williams go through a two-day orientation at the corporate headquarters in Tulsa, Okla. The company this year started a two-day onboarding program where veteran executives teach new hires the business fundamentals. Chief Human Resources Officer Debbie Pickle said that increased training will help new hires develop without loading them down with gruntwork. 'These are really bright, top talent people," she said. 'We shouldn't put a cap on how we think they can add value for the company." Still, Pickle said, the increased efficiency will allow the company to expand the business while keeping head count flat in the future. Some of the entry-level jobs most at risk are the most lucrative for recent graduates, including on Wall Street and in big law firms where six-figure starting salaries are the norm. But those jobs have also been famously menial for the first few years—until AI came along. The investment firm Carlyle now pitches to prospective hires that they won't be doing grunt work. Junior hires go through AI training and a program called 'AI University" in which employees share best practices and participate in pilot programs, said Lúcia Soares, the firm's chief information officer. In the past, she said, junior hires evaluating a deal would find articles on Google, request documents from companies, review that information manually, highlight details and copy and paste information from one document to another. Now, AI tools can do almost all of that. An employee poses for a headshot at the new-employee orientation at Williams. 'That analyst still has to go in and make sure the analysis is accurate, question it, challenge it," she said. 'The nature of the brain work that needs to go into it is very much the same. It's just the speed at which these analysts can move." She said Carlyle has maintained the same volume of entry-level hiring but said 90% of its staff has adopted generative AI tools that automate some work. Carlyle's reliance on young staff to check AI's output highlights what many users know to be true: it still struggles in some cases to do the work of humans effectively. Still, many executives expect that gap to close quickly. At the New York venture-capital firm Primary Venture Partners, Rebecca Price said she's encouraging CEOs of the firm's 100 portfolio companies to think hard about every hire and whether the role could be automated. She said it's not that there are no entry-level jobs, but that there's a gap between the skills companies expect out of their junior hires in the age of AI and what most new graduates are equipped with out of school. An engineer in a first job used to need basic coding abilities: now that same engineer needs to be able to detect vulnerabilities and have the judgment to determine what can be trusted from the AI models. New grads must also learn faster and think critically, she said—skills that many of the newest computer-science grads don't have yet. 'We're in this messy transition," said Price, a partner at the firm. 'The bar is higher and the system hasn't caught up." Students are seeing the transition in real time. Arjun Dabir, a 20-year-old applied math major at the University of California, Irvine, said when he applied for internships last year, companies asked for knowledge of coding languages. Now, they want candidates who are familiar with how AI 'agents" can automate certain tasks on behalf of humans—or 'agentic workflows" in the new vernacular. 'What is an intern going to do?" Dabir said as drones buzzed overhead nearby at an artificial intelligence convention in June in Washington, DC. The work typically done by interns, 'that task is no longer necessary. You don't need to hire someone to do it." Venture capitalist Allison Baum Gates said young professionals will need to be more entrepreneurial and gain experience on their own without the standard track of starting as an analyst or a paralegal and working their way up. Her firm, SemperVirens, invests in healthcare startups, workforce technology companies and fintech firms, some of which are replacing entry-level jobs. 'Maybe I'm wrong and this leads to a wealth of new jobs and opportunities and that would be a great situation," she said. 'But it would be far worse to assume that there's no adverse impact and then be caught without a solution." Rosalia Burr, 25, is trying to avoid such an outcome. She graduated in 2022 and quickly joined Liberty Mutual Insurance, where she had interned twice during college at Arizona State University. She was laid off from her payroll job in December. Running has soothed her anxiety. This spring, however, she tore her hip flexor and had to rest to heal. Job rejections, as she was stuck inside, hit extra hard. 'I felt that I was failing." Her goal now is to find a client-facing job. 'If you're in a business back-end role, you're more of a liability of getting laid off, or your job being automated," she said. 'If you're client facing, that's something people can't really replicate" with AI. Write to Lindsay Ellis at and Katherine Bindley at
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
EU and US Rush to Nail Down Final Details and Lock In Trade Deal
The European Union dodged an imminent trade war with the US this week, but markets and a growing chorus of critics have dispelled early hopes that the deal will bring a sense of stability back to transatlantic relations. The euro dropped the most in over two months against the dollar Monday, plunging more than 1%. That's after the common currency had surged to a near three-year high last week on the prospect of an agreement with the US. The EU over the weekend agreed to accept a 15% tariff on most of its exports, while the bloc's average tariff rate on American goods should drop below 1% once the deal goes into effect. Brussels also said it would purchase $750 billion in American energy products and invest $600 billion more in the US. 'The free trade principles that have underpinned transatlantic prosperity since the end of World War II are being systematically dismantled,' Karin Karlsbro, a Swedish member of the European Parliament's trade committee, said in a statement. 'The risk of European economic and political marginalization grows with each concession made.' German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who initially cheered the deal as having 'succeeded' in avoiding a trade conflict and enabling the EU to safeguard its interests, seemed to sour on the accord. 'The German economy will suffer significant damage from these tariffs,' he told reporters Monday. 'I'm pretty sure this won't be limited to Germany and Europe. We'll also see the consequences of this trade policy in America.' French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou was also critical, saying on social media: 'It's a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to affirm their values and defend their interests, opts for submission.' The EU and US will seek to clinch a non-legally binding joint statement by Aug. 1 that will expand on some of the elements negotiated over the weekend, according to a senior EU official. Once the statement is finalized, the US will begin lowering its tariffs on specific sectors, in particular for cars and car parts, which currently face a 27.5% levy. The two sides will then start work on a legally binding text, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The content and legal form of this document aren't clear, but it would require the support of at least a qualified majority of EU countries and possibly the European Parliament. The EU official said that reaching a consensus on the legal text could take a long time; many trade accords require years of negotiations. The EU won't start implementing the terms it agreed to — such as lowering tariffs on US products — until after this legal text is approved, according to the official. 'The agreement removes some tail downside risks but is short on details, which will need to be thrashed out over the coming weeks, risking new volatility,' Oliver Rakau — chief Germany economist at Oxford Economics — said in a note. 'Uncertainty is likely to remain elevated.' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the US agreed to bilaterally lower tariffs to zero on certain strategic products, including aircraft and component parts, certain generics, semiconductor equipment and certain agricultural products. One potential sticking point in negotiations will be EU metal exports, which currently have a 50% tariff rate. The EU is pushing for a quota on metals that would lower the levies on a certain volume of goods, while anything above that would pay the 50% rate, according to the EU official. 'Uncertainty remains regarding all the details concerning the European steel industry,' said Axel Eggert, director-general of the European Steel Association. Discussions are ongoing on whether some goods, such as wine and spirits, would be exempt from the 15% tariff rate, the EU official said. Another possible issue is the EU's promise to purchase $750 billion of American energy imports over three years, an integral part to securing the deal. Yet it's hard to see how the EU attains such ambitious flows over such a short time frame. Total energy imports from the US accounted for less than $80 billion last year, far short of the promise made by von der Leyen to Trump. Total US energy exports were just over $330 billion in 2024. The EU's pledge to invest an additional $600 billion in the US is just as problematic. The investment is just an aggregate of pledges by companies and not a binding target as the European Commission can't commit to such goal, said the EU official. The uncertainty from the trade war has weighed on EU economic forecasts, with the commission in May cutting its GDP growth expectations for the year to 1.1%. It projected a 1.5% rate in November. Despite the critics, the commission, which handles trade matters for the EU, insists this was the only course of action. 'This is clearly the best deal we could get under very difficult circumstances,' Maros Sefcovic, the EU's trade chief, told reporters on Monday. With assistance from Michal Kubala, Arne Delfs and John Ainger. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
How Trump got the upper hand over the EU on tariffs
Soon after he sat down to negotiate Sunday with European officials on a potential tariff agreement at his Scotland golf club, President Trump said he wanted assurances that Europe would follow through on its pledges to increase investment in the U.S. Trump questioned how the U.S. could be sure European companies wouldn't shrug off their plans, which came with a 15% levy on EU imports into the U.S. rather than the 30% Trump had threatened, according to people familiar with the matter. After EU leaders assured him that the investment plans they were talking about were real, Trump responded: 'prove it," according to one of the people. EU officials rattled off the names of European companies they said were already prepared to invest. With a trade deal in place, planned investments of almost $200 billion would grow by even more, they told Trump. At the end of the talks, Trump said the EU would now be investing $600 billion in the U.S. as part of the deal, which also included a plan to buy $750 billion of American energy products from the U.S. over three years. European officials said the $600 billion figure is based on private companies' investment plans. The agreement, widely seen as a victory for Trump, marked the culmination of monthslong talks between America and its largest trading partner and offered the biggest signal yet that nations see America's tariff regime as more permanent than temporary. The pact followed a shift in thinking by the Europeans: EU officials in recent talks sought to contain the damage the duties will inflict on the bloc's companies and economy, rather than try to negotiate the tariffs away outright. Tariffs of 15% are 'certainly a challenge for some," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. 'But we should not forget it keeps [the EU's] access to the American market." Just before Trump and von der Leyen met Sunday to iron out the agreement, Trump aides called European officials to solidify that part of the talks would focus on the EU giving U.S. companies better access to the bloc's markets, according to a person familiar with the matter. The EU's decision to accept Trump's 15% level for tariffs marked a contrast to its initial, more adversarial approach. After Trump imposed in March 25% levies for steel and aluminum, the bloc started preparing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, including American products such as peanut butter and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Some of the products were chosen to try to maximize political pain for Trump, an EU official said when the bloc's list was announced that month. After the U.K. in May got a deal that pegged tariffs to 10%, Trump's global baseline for duties, some European officials were dismissive. 'If the U.K.-U.S. deal is what Europe gets, then the U.S. can expect countermeasures from our side," Benjamin Dousa, Sweden's minister for international development cooperation and foreign trade, said at the time. But European officials eventually came to view 10% as a minimum level. They noticed Trump administration officials talking about the revenue the tariffs were pulling in. 'It was more and more clear that President Trump is dead serious about significantly transforming the landscape of global trade," EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told The Wall Street Journal on Monday, adding, 'the status quo of going back to last year, or before April 2, simply is not possible." As the EU tried to adapt, it relied heavily on Šefčovič to lead political discussions with U.S. officials. Since February, he has traveled to Washington seven times to meet with U.S. trade officials and had more than 100 hours of contact with them over recent months, including frequent phone and video calls. On one occasion about a week before Trump and von der Leyen's meeting in Scotland, Šefčovič said he spent half of a roughly 700-mile road trip to his home country of Slovakia talking with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, with his two golden retrievers panting in the back seat. At one point, 'I said Howard, it's not me," Šefčovič said of the dogs' heavy breathing. When he needed to find documents to help with the discussion, Šefčovič looked for parking lots with a Wi-Fi signal, during what turned out to be a crucial late-stage discussion ahead of the leaders' sit-down in Scotland. A major inflection point in the talks came in May, when Trump threatened on social media to apply a 50% tariff on the bloc. 'Our discussions with them are going nowhere," Trump said at the time. After a phone call with von der Leyen two days later, he said he would hold off on that threat. The bloc shifted its approach. It presented U.S. trade officials with a proposal that included plans to increase purchases of American energy products and an offer to lower tariffs for certain U.S. imports, people familiar with the matter said. Greer said in early June that the EU had provided 'a credible starting point" for talks between the two economies. Then on July 12 Trump published a letter on social media saying he would put 30% tariffs on the bloc in early August. The development was unexpected for European officials who had hoped they were close to a deal. Days after the letter was posted, Šefčovič told Fox News, in comments that foreshadowed the eventual deal, that the EU was prepared to significantly increase purchases of U.S. energy products including oil, liquefied natural gas and nuclear fuel, and to spend about $40 billion on artificial intelligence chips. He also said the EU was looking at about $500 billion in EU companies investments in the U.S. over a three-year period. Ahead of the Scotland meeting, Šefčovič sought advice from Japan's chief negotiator to get a better sense of what to expect, people familiar with the matter said. He learned that Japan's final-stage talks with Trump went beyond surface level discussions and delved into the details of the agreement. The Europeans hunkered down in a hotel in Glasgow on Sunday to discuss what kind of messaging would be most effective during the meeting with Trump, a person familiar with their preparations said. They showed up ready to talk specifics: including examples of companies' planned U.S. investments. Write to Kim Mackrael at and Brian Schwartz at
