OpenAI’s ChatGPT has crossed 200 million weekly users, a report from Axios shared, and was later confirmed by the AI company as well.

Although there were doubts around whether OpenAI still held its first mover advantage in the generative AI space, the company has added roughly 100 million users in less than a year.

Still, the Microsoft-backed AI firm faces competition from larger, legacy Big Tech companies that are now directing their resources and talent at generative AI, in an effort to stay ahead.

While personal and business users have a huge variety of AI products to choose from as a result of this, regulators have expressed concerns surrounding antitrust issues and the safety of the advanced models being released.

To that end, OpenAI and Google/Amazon-backed Anthropic are both cooperating with the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) so that the organisation can access their newest models before public release.

The institute will look at safety recommendations for the new models, and also work with the U.K. AI Safety Institute. 

“Safety is essential to fueling breakthrough technological innovation. With these agreements in place, we look forward to beginning our technical collaborations with Anthropic and OpenAI to advance the science of AI safety. These agreements are just the start, but they are an important milestone as we work to help responsibly steward the future of AI,” said Elizabeth Kelly, director of the U.S. AI Safety Institute, on the website.