In the news: Why are Americans ditching ChatGPT for Claude?

Something unusual is happening in the AI world right now. Millions of people are abandoning a tool they've used for years and switching to a new one. Not because the old one stopped working, but because of something bigger: values. If you've been seeing ‘I just switched to Claude’ popping up all over social media, let’s take a look at what is going on and why it matters.

In early 2026 Anthropic, which is the company behind AI tool Claude, did something ground breaking. They said no to the U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) when they asked to use Claude for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons systems. Hours later OpenAI, who is the company behind ChatGPT, announced its own deal with the Pentagon instead and the government responded by ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic products, and labelled the company a supply chain risk. In response, they are suing the US government for unfairly discriminating and retaliating against Anthropic. 

When news of this hit the media, many users of ChatGPT decided to move over to Claude as their AI assistant. Claude shot to the number one spot on Apple's U.S. App Store, reportedly overtaking ChatGPT for the very first time. And on Reddit, a ‘Cancel ChatGPT’ movement exploded, with users sharing screenshots of deleted accounts and posting comments like ‘fastest install of my life’. According to Anthropic, daily sign-ups hit record highs, with free users jumping more than 60% since January and paid subscribers more than doubling in 2026. 

In a recent interview with ABC news, co-founder of Anthropic, Daniela Amodei, boistered the popularity of the company. When asked about studying a humanities degree over a technical degree, she said that she has no regrets, and that actually she thinks ‘studying the humanities is going to be more important than ever. A lot of these models are actually very good at STEM. But I think this idea that there are things that make us uniquely human...I think that will always be really, really important. And I think the ability to have critical thinking skills and learn how to interact with other people will be more important in the future, rather than less’ .

Personally, I think both the ethical stance of the company against the US government and the knowledge that the cofounder of Anthropic has a humanities background is really encouraging. The significant number of users making a choice about the AI tools that they use based on the ethics of the company is also an important moment, showing AI organisations that values and ethics are extremely important to their consumers. There are many concerns about the ethical and sustainable use of AI, and when users respond in this way, it can only help to encourage companies to proceed in a more sustainable and ethical way.