Title: How People Use ChatGPT
Abstract: Three years after its launch, ChatGPT was used at least weekly by ten percent of the global adult population. This paper documents several important facts about how people use ChatGPT using a large random sample of ChatGPT messages linked to demographic data via an automated privacy-preserving process. ChatGPT usage was initially higher among men and users from high-income countries, but those gaps had closed substantially as of September 2025. Although non-work usage has grown relatively faster, users on consumer plans still send hundreds of millions of work-related messages each day. Work-related ChatGPT usage is highly concentrated in knowledge-seeking activities like decision support and analyzing and interpreting information, regardless of user occupation. We develop a principal-agent model of AI chatbot usage that is motivated by evidence from people using ChatGPT both to ask for advice and to delegate tasks directly. The model highlights the central role of users’ demand for customization due to idiosyncratic preferences, which we call context. Using a novel classifier that measures conversational context, we find that users are more likely to ask AI chatbots for advice rather than work output when their queries have higher context requirements. Since context must be transmitted by the user, it may be a key bottleneck to unlocking economic value from AI.
Bio: Zoë is currently with Anthropic, and a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. She earned her PhD in economics from Harvard University in 2023, where she specialized in research on privacy, transparency, and algorithms in markets and communication. Zoë’s poetry, known for its sharp intellect and imaginative breadth, has appeared in prestigious publications such as The New Yorker, London Review of Books, and Boston Review. She is the author of two acclaimed poetry collections, including Mezzanine and Not Us Now, which explore themes at the intersection of philosophy, economics, and technology.