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A wave of users is migrating from ChatGPT to its rival Claude amid escalating tensions between artificial intelligence developers and the U.S. military, according to industry observers.
The shift gained momentum following a high-profile standoff between Anthropic, the creator of Claude, and the Department of Defense. Anthropic declined to permit its AI systems to support large-scale surveillance within the country or the development of weapons that operate without human oversight. In retaliation, President Trump directed all government departments to cease reliance on Anthropic’s technology, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed intentions to label the firm as a potential risk in the supply chain, as detailed in a recent report.
Shortly afterward, OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, revealed a partnership with the Pentagon that incorporates certain protective measures, though the arrangement has ignited significant discussions about data privacy and the moral implications of AI in defense applications, according to another analysis.
This dispute has propelled Claude into the spotlight, with the app climbing to the second position among free downloads in Apple’s U.S. App Store and surpassing ChatGPT in popularity. Anthropic reported unprecedented daily registrations, a more than 60 percent increase in free accounts since the start of the year, and a doubling of premium memberships over the same period.
For those disillusioned by the OpenAI developments, Claude represents a principled option that prioritizes ethical boundaries. Users looking to transition can preserve their interaction history by exporting data from ChatGPT through its settings menu under personalization and memory controls, where they can review, edit, and save relevant details. Alternatively, full chat archives can be requested via data export options, delivered by email in readable formats, though processing times vary with account size.
Manual extraction of essential dialogues or summaries of user habits provides another route. Once obtained, this information transfers easily to Claude by enabling the memory function in its settings, available to subscribers of its professional tiers, and inputting prompts to integrate the details seamlessly. For guidance on memory handling in Claude, refer to Anthropic’s support resources.
To fully sever ties with ChatGPT, individuals should first clear stored memories and personalization data from the platform’s settings, issue a direct command to erase all retained information, and then proceed to account deletion through management tools. This process ensures a clean departure while safeguarding personal records for use elsewhere.
