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OpenAI experienced a significant outage just hours after announcing its integration with Apple’s ecosystem, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

The outage, which began around 7 PM ET (5:30 AM IST), affected both OpenAI’s API and its newly-launched product Sora, an AI model capable of generating videos from text prompts. 

The issue lasted until 8 AM IST, causing several hours of downtime and leaving millions of users searching for alternatives. This marks the second major outage for OpenAI in a short time, following a similar incident in early November.

“We’re experiencing an outage right now. We have identified the issue and are working to roll out a fix. Sorry and we’ll keep you updated!,” said the company in a post on X. 

Some of the alternatives to the chatbot are Gemini, Microsoft Co-pilot, Perplexity AI, among others. 

The outage also coincided with disruptions to Meta’s platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, which faced widespread issues, impacting social media and communication services for thousands of users.

Users reported issues ranging from having trouble accessing messages, comments, and posts, which were either delayed or entirely unavailable. The outages impacted both desktop and mobile versions of the platforms, though some users noted intermittent access to the services.

“We’re aware that a technical issue is impacting some users’ ability to access our apps. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and apologise for any inconvenience,” said Meta in a statement.

Users went on X to express their dissatisfaction, particularly those subscribed to premium tiers, such as the $20/month Plus membership or the $200/month Pro membership.

 “I can no longer work or do school or cook or do my laundry or make conversation with anyone,” said a user. 

“I pay $20 a month just for it to not work when I have an assignment due tonight, thanks,” another user added.