New Delhi, March 2 -- WhenOpenAI first released ChatGPT, it was framed as an experiment in conversational AI. That framing no longer holds. With more than 900 million weekly active users and 50 million paying subscribers, ChatGPT has quietly crossed into a different role: the default entry point for interacting with artificial intelligence.

That shift was underlined this week by Nick Turley, Vice-President and Head of ChatGPT at OpenAI, who said the milestone reflects how widely the product is being used.

For many users, ChatGPT is no longer a destination. It is where work begins, drafting documents, writing code, planning trips, researching topics, shopping, or simply getting tasks done. In effect, OpenAI has built not just a chatbot b...