ChatGPT from proper name to synonym for AI chatbot: the "antonomasia" redefining conversation with artificial intelligence

Today, ChatGPT represents an entire category and is no longer just a specific platform.

We can say that ChatGPT has taken on a role far beyond that of a simple intelligent messaging software. It has become the word people use to describe any experience of conversation with AI, regardless of the platform actually in use. This phenomenon is known as antonomasia, that linguistic process that transforms a brand, a product, or a proper name into the generic term for an entire category. Today, anyone saying “I asked ChatGPT” often means they interacted with an AI system, whatever the actual engine behind it. ChatGPT has become the benchmark for functionality, but also for the entire collective imagination of conversational artificial intelligence.

The birth of ChatGPT as a prototype and its rapid rise as a mass phenomenon mark a historic turning point in the AI sector.

The official launch of ChatGPT as a research preview on November 30, 2022, represented a turning point in the evolution of digital technologies. In a very short time, the platform reached the impressive threshold of 100 million monthly active users, establishing itself as a new standard in terms of speed of adoption. This exponential growth was fueled by an extremely simple interface, the ability to generate natural text convincingly, and immediate accessibility. The user experience was designed to be within anyone’s reach, bringing the concept of conversational artificial intelligence directly into the daily lives of millions of people, without requiring technical knowledge or significant entry barriers.

A widespread distribution strategy brought ChatGPT everywhere, from web apps to smartphones and integrations into enterprise products.

OpenAI implemented a strategy aimed at making ChatGPT available on any channel that could support large-scale adoption. Immediate access through a web app made global use possible from day one, while the opening of APIs allowed thousands of developers to integrate the model into third-party applications, vertical tools, and custom software. The subsequent release of mobile apps for iOS and Android, in May and July 2023 respectively, marked a further leap forward, bringing the ChatGPT experience into the pockets of millions of users worldwide. In 2025, this approach made it possible to reach the record of 46 million downloads in a single month, making the platform present and recognizable in both work, school, and personal contexts.

Enterprise adoption transforms ChatGPT into an essential infrastructure for productivity and information management.

January 2025 marks another key moment: Microsoft decides to integrate Copilot Chat powered by GPT-4o directly into all the main Microsoft 365 applications. The presence of ChatGPT in tools like Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams revolutionizes the ways companies work and communicate, going far beyond the initial experimentation phase. Generative artificial intelligence thus becomes a structural component of text editing, data analysis, presentation preparation, and internal communication processes. This evolution pushes organizations of all sizes to consider ChatGPT as the operational standard for digital productivity.

Daily use of ChatGPT in 2025 occurs on an unprecedented scale, redefining the very concept of a digital hub.

The latest statistics demonstrate the now widespread presence of ChatGPT. In February 2025, the platform reached 400 million weekly active users, while between May and June of the same year, monthly visits to the site exceeded 5 billion. The success of the mobile version is confirmed by a base of over 175 million active users, constantly growing. The user experience has expanded enormously: today, users move seamlessly from text conversation to image generation, from code automation to reading and analyzing documents, without ever leaving the same interface. This model of operational continuity makes ChatGPT a true digital command center, able to satisfy the needs of professionals, students, and creatives at any time of the day.

Other AI chats increasingly adopt similarities with ChatGPT, replicating logics, modes, and even limitations that made the OpenAI paradigm famous.

In the landscape of conversational artificial intelligences, the presence of ChatGPT is clearly reflected in the design choices and ambitions of almost all major competitors. Google Gemini has progressively adapted its interface to offer an experience closely reminiscent of ChatGPT: the initial screen centered on a text prompt, responses divided into blocks, the possibility to upload documents, the implementation of multimodal vision, and even the tone of responses, often designed to be just as conversational and accessible. The resemblance goes beyond basic functions; the recent introduction of continuous conversation mode, quick suggestions, and commands to generate images or analyze tables retraces steps already experienced by OpenAI users.

Similarly, Anthropic Claude, while promoting itself as a platform attentive to safety and ethics, has integrated many of the solutions that made ChatGPT successful. From the threaded chat structure to the integration of tools for reading documents, including the offer of free and premium versions, Claude moves along a path that confirms the benchmark model remains the one set by OpenAI. Even the lexicon adopted by communities revolves around terms that recall ChatGPT’s language: prompt, agent, session, real-time generation.

The same trend characterizes Meta AI, which has sought to emulate the speed of response, the minimalist look of the conversation screen, and the integration of text, voice, and images. The responses are structured similarly, with catchy openings and reassuring conclusions, designed to replicate that naturalness that has turned ChatGPT into a familiar interlocutor even for less experienced users. These examples outline a “ChatGPT standard,” a set of implicit rules that now guide the development of the entire sector.

The interfaces of AI chats show visual, aesthetic, and responsiveness similarities that reflect a convergent design inspired by the ChatGPT model.

Looking closely at the graphical interfaces of the main chatbots, a curious parallel emerges that goes beyond simple color or typography choices. In the case of ChatGPT, the entry screen presents a central space dominated by a linear prompt, a few options located at the top right, and a conversation area that expands upward as the dialogue progresses. Google Gemini almost exactly replicates this layout, only swapping the color palette for shades that recall Mountain View’s corporate profile and introducing micro-animations that mimic ChatGPT’s cursor glow when generating a response.

On Anthropic Claude’s side, the choice to use a neutral background, free of distractions and boxes, mirrors the essentiality proposed by OpenAI, as does the positioning of the model selector and the graphic that notifies the user when the AI is “writing.” Even the transitions, based on very short fade ins and fade outs, evoke that sense of immediacy users have long associated with ChatGPT.

A similar discussion applies to responsiveness. The major chatbots adopt identical breakpoints for switching from desktop to mobile view: the prompt contracts into a smaller field, while message history remains accessible via lateral drop-down icons. This consistency does not derive solely from usability needs but from the intention to guarantee users a recognizable experience. The similarity extends even to micro-interactions, such as the appearance of animated dots indicating generation in progress or the presence of colored badges to distinguish AI responses from those generated by plugins.

Aesthetically, the platforms converge toward minimalism that highlights textual content: palettes with neutral grays, highly readable geometric fonts, outline icons that suggest functions without cluttering the scene. It is an intentional choice because conversations must remain the protagonist; however, the result is that anyone opening Gemini, Claude, or Meta AI immediately perceives a sense of “digital déjà vu.” Even notification sounds, often almost imperceptible and with a soft timbre, reprise the idea of gentle feedback first introduced by ChatGPT at the start of 2023.

Even the management of sidebars—with the list of recent chats, buttons to start a new conversation, and quick settings—follows a layout that, in its simplicity, has become a true trademark. It is not surprising that experimental versions of minor projects, such as Perplexity or grok-based interfaces, show prototypes with identical spatial organization, confirming how the original design has imposed an aesthetic hegemony that transcends code. This visual, intentional, and responsive convergence seals ChatGPT’s cultural strength: linguistic antonomasia is thus reflected in a design antonomasia, where the very form of the chat becomes synonymous with a certain idea of conversational artificial intelligence.

____________

FOLLOW US FOR MORE.

DATA STUDIOS

datastudios.org