This past week, Apple launched iOS 18.2, featuring a new integrated ChatGPT functionality. Shortly thereafter, ChatGPT and several other OpenAI services experienced a significant outage. Could these two events be connected? Here’s what OpenAI officially stated.
OpenAI’s explanation dismisses a direct link to iOS 18.2
OpenAI released a detailed post-mortem addressing the outage on December 11 that led to over four hours of service interruption.
Here’s the official statement:
The issue originated from a newly deployed telemetry service that inadvertently overwhelmed the Kubernetes control plane, resulting in cascading failures throughout essential systems…This incident was due to an internal adjustment to implement new telemetry across our infrastructure and was not linked to a security breach or any recent product launch.
The report notes that performance for ChatGPT and other products began to decline around 3:16 PM—approximately two hours after the release of iOS 18.2.
This close timing is quite coincidental, which led many to speculate whether the new iOS update had unintentionally stressed OpenAI’s servers.
However, OpenAI clarifies that this is not the case. The issue arose from a newly implemented monitoring tool that was misconfigured and inadvertently placed additional strain on the system.
Unresolved queries regarding the OpenAI outage
One question that piques my curiosity, which the post-mortem does not directly cover, is the rationale behind deploying the new telemetry service in the first place.
Was it somehow connected to the launch of iOS 18.2?
We cannot say for certain, and OpenAI’s outage explanation does not provide clarity on this matter.
Even if the deployment was related to iOS 18.2, it wouldn’t technically imply that Apple’s software launch was to blame for the outage.
The problem did not stem from excessive traffic generated by iPhone users excited about the new Apple Intelligence features.
Rather, it was a case of a malfunctioning monitoring tool that just happened to fail at a very unfortunate time.
What are your thoughts on OpenAI’s explanation regarding the outage? Feel free to share in the comments.
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